Lore:Six and One
 Six and One |
Other Names: The Houses, Shattered Empire |
The Six and One
The Six and One are the new ruling body of the Infinite Empire, a leadership with their path to the Sleepless Throne carved by sword and shot almost six hundred years ago-- now referred to as the seven Great Houses, with numerous Peripheral Houses alongside.
Each Great House runs the Empire from from their own individual fief world, all but one being terraformed in some way or another, some by the Emperor's will long ago. These fiefs are the height of modern Tajaran culture, hosting often millions of House members in a vast standard of luxury compared to the outer rim of the Empire.
All Houses, both Great and Peripheral, are held internally to certain Contracts drawn up centuries ago and expanded upon to the modern day. A legacy of their ancestors in banditry or formerly unspoken agreements binding petty nobility, each House Contract is a living document, with tenets suggested and debated by those who sign it; particularly, those with the Face to speak for or against it. Commonly, 'high rollers' of each House will meet once a year or 'whenever we will' to take place in discussions of wildly varying tone; in one House, invectives are used at their most searing to cut low verbal opposition, in others Contractual discussions may take place over sport or games.
When an unHoused Tajaran does sign a House Contract, they are awarded with a House Name. An unHoused Tajaran commonly follows the naming scheme of Family-Personal Name, often reversed in Sol, while a member of a House will be named House Group-Personal Name. The second component can remain family, but some will have theirs reflect the crew they work alongside within their House. It is forbidden, if not outright social suicide, to forsake one's House Name, and many Tajarans are insistent that it even be used in casual conversation, least of which on all personal documents.
Additionally, the signature of the House Contract, beyond granting one the House Name and binding one to House Articles, grants each member a 'share' of the House Face. If a mariner finds themselves utterly cheated in an utterly underhanded fashion by an inland merchant and both are unHoused, they cannot truly expect help; the Merchant simply has more Face in the scenario, is simply more clever, and deserves their money through being better. The Mariner's only out would be to pull an equal trick, or perhaps to make the Merchant laugh.
However, if the Mariner is a member of even a Peripheral House, it is sky color obvious to the Merchant that a level of gravitas is to be given to the overwhelming amount of Face that the Mariner is channeling from. Depending on what House one is a member of at what time, one might even expect a discount from sympathetic members of the Empire. This comes at the cost that one is expected to wear the House Face well, and stumbling into obvious social calamity is a quick way to have it ripped off.
While House Articles for the most part only apply to those who have signed the Contract, every member of every House is held to the Seven-Part Mandate, referring to the Six and One council fashioning it. The laws of the Mandate are borderline immutable by outsiders, with only those of a supreme amount of Face being able to stride into conversation and so much as suggest changes to it.
The Six and One meet in what used to be the Emperor's Palace, festooned in impressive finery and dazzlingly colorful filigree, bringing luxury spoils in tow or even high value captives as retainers, meeting with artisanal furniture and exquisite food and drink. Here, their schemes and layered plans are discussed through numerous mediums of communication at once. Listening to only the words of other members of the Council is folly; unspoken signals are communicated with motions of the tails, subtle changes in ear elevation, even the very color of a hat. Three seats sit across from three seats, with a high and lonely chair sitting at the end.
House Morikann
House Morikann, known for their contributions in providing an outstanding amount of skilled corsairs for the 'coastal efforts' of the Empire, is one of the more notorious members of the Outer Houses, a clique of Great Houses whose business primarily deals with external affairs.
Great Houses tend to have their early histories permanently dyed with mythos and legend, and House Morikann is no exception. It is spoken that the original members of House Morikann, tens of thousands of years ago, were a band of ruthless marauders with each One being Two. Two heads, multiple eyes, four hearts, and four arms, with grand statures even beyond the Emperor's Guard. Morikann warriors, superior with their fourfold daggers, were feared by the Emperor for their capacity to hold two Faces in one body, and for the destructive warlike power of a quadruple Heart. An all-out war was waged for a century against their cluster of worlds, hundreds of Imperial warships sent to pour out the thousands needed to take on even a dozen of them. When all was done, the Morikann were sentenced to be split by royal executioners; their left halves were cast into the distant void never to be seen again, and their right halves made to serve as battle thralls at the edges of the Infinite Empire.
Following the Fracture, Morikann bandits were some of the first to begin operating as bandits in the far ranges of the Infinite Empire, preying on Spartan vessels sent for colonization; parting goods from people, and recruiting all that they could to further their operations. In regions where the Emperor's grasp was so loose as to be limp, such bandits and rebels led by those from the Morikann Star started to spring up just about everywhere.
In the modern times, the House is known as reliable, but unruly mariners and footmen. Morikann privateers are some of the most jovial raiders a freighter crew could hope to encounter, infamous for their war masks and wicked laughter; all while operating under cloaking fields and barraging engines shortly after hailing. Members of their House are known for carrying the same trend of nicknames they had when they were outlaws, many being named after their defining traits. One might be known as Double Gun Rantaine, another simply as the Fat One Sahbiri. Notably, House Morikann's initiation rituals are fundamentally very loose, typically an unHoused member being recruited in a way determined by a specific crew or clique within the House itself.
The leading councilmember of House Morikann is 'Bulletproof Devil' Morikann Astalle-Nolieu. Nolieu the Bulletproof Devil was named for a certain assassination attempt in which one of her hearts was shot through with an ineffectively large round, piercing the smaller one and penetrating right through her body to a second assassin positioned as backup behind her. Charismatic, ambitious, intelligent as a Tajaran ought to be, she is equally known as a comic for her public appearances on Empire-wide shows, telling slightly-exaggerated tales from her excursions into the void alongside her House members.
Salnai, the Never Land, is the fiefdom of the House, located around their ancestral holdings of the Morikann Star. Formerly a forbidden zone, the House has reclaimed their homeworld in spectacular fashion. Mild in the winter, warm in the summer, the vast seas and archipelagos of Salnai that made the Morikann into famous mariners give the House a coastal and relaxed climate to relax in, tall observation spires, theaters, and circuses being built right alongside traditional Tajaran coffeehouses and hunting lodges.
House Astameur
House Astameur is chief amongst the Inner Houses, contrasting heavily with their cross-table partners of House Morikann. While other Houses existed as part of the bandit confederacy pulling off the Fracture in the year 2000, House Astameur had their beginnings across space from the rising movement. They are, in the modern times, an evolution of the Moonlit Society, the Emperor's Harem formerly known for their incredible political power over the Emperor and the Nobility as a whole.
When the Fracture was to be done, as opposed to the efforts of the Imperial Armada in resisting what was to be done, the Moonlit Society chose to fold inwards; intentionally setting up the Last Emperor to fail, trapping them within the throne room and watching their Bleeding Heart spill. Their reward was vast, freedom from their more unsavory duties, status as a Great House, and some pick over a new fiefdom. However, they quickly found that their former power and ability to manipulate present and future events through gossip, sexuality, and delicate conversation had all but vanished; the other Houses had seen or experienced their game, and their every move even to the modern day is rumored as some part of an agenda.
With the shift in power dampening the abilities of their previous methodology the men, women, and those in-between and outside have found themselves adopting new roles in supporting, rather than guiding. House Astameur has installed themselves in the twin hearts of many Tajarans for their Face arts. In terms of Imperial contributions, House Astameur is a luxury powerhouse, producing furnishings and clothing, accessories and rare galactic fragrances, Astameur parlor-boutiques operating even outside of the Empire itself.
Many members of other Houses and even wealthy unHoused visit Astameur's fiefdom on aesthetic pilgrimages, hoping to have even glances at Astameur haute couture, let alone gorgeous traditional Tajaran woven carpets to decorate their ships with. Many 'high rollers' of the House are incredible socialites owing to their past, utilizing these skills not to re-establish themselves as puppet masters, but now in both televised appearances, in stageplay, and as unfortunately-alluring advisors for other Houses. Called upon their well-exercised political and economic acumen, members of House Astameur are also called upon for their social tact and incredible senses of fashion. Astameur 'wingmen' have been vital for those hoping to climb the ranks of their own Houses, being provided with aesthetic tips, social maneuvers, and memorable sound bytes for any given situation; even experienced climbers visiting their parlor-boutiques for 'a night's confidence' before a hefty day of politick.
The leading councilmember of House Astameur is Astameur Bazal-Inohana, known as the Whore of Sublirel; a title passed down from those that came before him. Inohana is known predominantly for his outfits; vivid colors, bold prints, and cuts enough to totally expose his breasts, accessories heavily featuring super-light chainmail made of rare materials not found within the Empire and aesthetics combining traditional royal luxury and the classical formal designs of the Six and One with overt sexuality. He has often made appearances outside the Sleepless Throne for shifts in the Seven-Part Mandate kept warm by furs from even endangered Terran animals. Equally, Inohana is known for his work in hospitality, partnering with House Nerelles to ensure Empire-wide access to fine cuisine.
Sublirel, the Autumn's End, is the fiefdom of the House, located only a few planets away from the Sleepless Throne itself. True Astameur civilization is found in the sleepy boreal forests of Sublirel, the majority of the planet kept in an eternal yet comfortable near-winter; enough snow for photography, not enough to drench one's fur.
House Ussirune
House Ussirune is another Outer House, normally seen working alongside the corsairs of the other Great Houses, especially those of House Morikann, having remained 'close friends' with them far back in the age of banditry. It is said that the members of House Ussirune used to have fur made of finely-grown threads of actual metallic silver, giving up their luxurious coatings in sympathy for the Fracture, to then make up the material used to fashion the ceremonial blades that members of Morikann carry to this day.
The day-to-day of House Ussirune is found in trade and mercantile activity. High rolling members of the House are infamous for being fast talkers and savvy traders, but equally for throwing their weight around; Ussirune vessels displacing freighters and hulks from almost every other faction in the trade routes they frequent, with their influence growing day by day. They compete with the House Morikann in hiring the most aliens out of any Outer House, many merchants who have their ships cut open by Tajaran corsairs find Ussirune as the only safe and welcoming pair of arms to fall into.
House Ussirune are also the means through which other Great Houses open their businesses onto foreign lands outside the Empire, their methods highly refined ever since widespread contact with alien interests. Plotters within the House have been able to penetrate several different 'outsider' markets, the economies and regional cultures of areas they touch quickly shifting towards Tajaran interests. Face and galactic reputation are ultimately important to the Ussirune as well, maintaining high standards for appearance in their Contract. Ussirune are known domestically for their contributions to the field of Tajaran recreational drugs, all manner of psychoactive substances being brought around the Empire to a wide variety of Ussirune lounges and shops. Solarian imports have also been brought to the Empire by this House, anything from cannabis to kronkaine, those within the House maintaining their nonchalant attitudes often through chemical assistance.
Ussirune Sarraseul-Naruse is the leading councilmember of the House, simply known by her peers as Southern Mountain; thought to be a sexual euphemism. She is often smelled before she is seen, known to smoke a pipe whenever she is seen. While her pipes are long, heavy, and suitably well-crafted enough to be used as weapons, her outfits are rather lowkey and demure in comparison to the rest of the Six and One, wearing essentially silk loungewear and relaxed pajamas for almost every occasion.
Istrover, the fiefdom of House Ussirune, is by far one of the most bustling fiefdoms. Rather than being kept as a garden world, her well-terraformed surface was put to work by Naruse's ancestors as the host of some of the most important Imperial spaceports and docks, extraordinary logistics passing through every hour. Elsewhere, lounges and casinos service those of all different races, even those from outside the Empire.
House Verikami
House Verikami is another Inner House, often working alongside Astameur Bazal-Inohana and his House to provide hospitality to the Empire. Operating a comparatively low amount of corsairs, Verikami history starts with their former status as common serfs. Their rural background as commoners persists through legend that the ancestors of House Verikami had literally grown out of the ground, rising from their worlds in service of the Emperor.
Verikami ancestors, farmers, miners, and other serfs, were infamous among Imperial forces for being some of the most fierce fighters leading up to the 2000s; easily some of the most Heartsick of the bandit confederacy of the time, later the Six and One. They are still rather 'severe' personality-wise, even Morikann corsairs rarely being willing to cross a member of House Verikami.
Besides their very wealthy agricultural industry, a great member of Tajaran restaurant chains exist as ventures of the House Verikami, including one of the most popular frontier fast food chains, OOO. OOO, properly pronounced as 'Three Rings,' typically takes the form of a chain of installations most similar to the Solarian idea of a 'Chinese restaurant,' serving traditional Tajaran cuisine from a variety of regions, including other fiefdoms such as Sublirel and Istrover.
Owing to their skill in traditional Tajaran medicine and their penchant for home growth of useful herbs, House Verikami also operates the vast majority of hospitals and clinics within Imperial space, this normally being where their corsairs' captives end up to draw from whatever knowledge or equipment they had on them at the time of raid.
Sorocan, the fiefdom of House Verikami, is comparatively vacant compared to other Houses. Carefully sculpted to an agrarian paradise with rolling hills and tall mountains, Sorocan is less known for hi-lux mansions and casinos, and more for farmers' markets and riding stables. Here, the House's councilmember Verikami Fiverene-Azelas lives; one of the most renowned doctors in the Orion Spur, constantly at work with whatever patients they can get their hands on. Possessed of a 'sick Heart,' Azelas rarely leaves their fief; they are friendly and inspiring on a good day, and extremely violent on another, though never to their own subordinates.
House Toragana
The last Outer House, House Toragana is the lynchpin of the clique's efforts. It is said that the Toragana have been with Tajaran society even before they had conceived of the concept of space; it is they who had discovered fire, they who had discovered gunpowder, and they who had sent the first rocket past the atmosphere.
Formerly very close with House Parigari across the table, House Toragana is historically known for being masons and architects for the nobility. Originally responsible for planning capitals for planets and ships and everything that a Tajaran city needed to function, their House and their 'twin' were responsible for many under-the-table deals with what was then Houses Morikann and Ussirune, constructing both weapons and ships for them to pull off the Instant Kill.
House Toragana's Faces are not always found in their members, but in their constructions. Every ship built by Toraganii shipwrights is a work of art; combining maneuverability and ability to perform warfare with grand architecture. Toraganii ships continue the ancient maritime tradition of figureheads at the bow, golden badges mounted to the superstructures, and even incredibly comfortable interiors compared to even Solarian vessels. Much like House Parigari, Toragana is where most forms of robots are found within the Empire, necessary for pulling off large-scale artisanship while still meeting production minimums.
Elsewhere, Toraganii architecture is marked by monumental buildings focused around bilateral symmetry, enclosed open spaces, and frequent use of stonemasonry. One can immediately identify even a wartorn former Imperial building from one where commoners would stay, especially due to the use of a number of gates one would have to pass through before entering.
Their councilmember, Toragana Runno-Shourabi, simply referred to as the Shipmaster, is one of the most heavily augmented Tajarans, known for having the entire lower half of his body being a mechanical prosthesis following a failed assassination attempt. Rarely seen on his own fiefdom, he is entrusted as the Shipmaster of the new Imperial flagship, the Grand Design to Shatter Infinity. The Grand Design is a truly massive vessel, the penultimate work of Toriganii art. It serves as a backup for the Sleepless Throne, a mobile Council Chamber meant to house meetings on the Seven-Part Mandate, and as one of the most notorious warships in known space. He is said to be just, even-handed, and ultimately egotistical due to often having an entire warship as part of his body; notably, not believing that he can be killed.
Constantly upon by a number of other houses, their fiefdom of the Wonder Moon of Hyldetan is a relative time capsule. It is one of the most architecturally valuable worlds in the Empire, carefully-maintained Imperial-era buildings still standing as a reward for their efforts during the rebellion. The tourism industry here draws in those from all across Tajaran territory, retired members of the House being most of the dwellers here.
House Parigari
House Parigari, the last Inner House, serves as the 'twin' for House Toragana. They are said to have originally been stone creatures created by a forgotten god, made to continue his work at building the Tajaran homeworld and the society that would take place there, eventually interbreeding with the mortals to the state they are today.
Formerly very close with House Toragana across the table, a dispute had split them apart after the rebellion, an ideological conflict between Inner and Outer doctrine. Where the Toragana went to fill the stars with their warships, Parigari went to fill the Empire with their technology. It was originally Parigari engineers that discovered the drives that Imperial Warships would use, and it is they who worked bluespace drives into the warships that House Morikann and their allies would use.
Several technological innovations, such as adaptation of Solarian robotics, modern Ussirune smoking pipes, and even the holographic threads that the Whore of Sublirel's outfits use, have been thanks to House Parigari. In contrast to the other Inner Houses, they employ a large number of corsairs meant to steal advanced technologies from any faction that crosses their minds, particularly seen eating at Ordoht vessels.
Their councilmember, Parigari Temuge-Chambui, nicknamed the Lord of Thunder for her voice and use of electric weapons, is one of the largest Tajarans alive right now. Rumors abound whether her stature is natural or genetic modification (another technology House Parigari has introduced on their own), but she is an imposing and distant figure. While the other worlds ruled by the Six and One tend to suffer from internal faults, Chambui's worlds are the most stable as she commands tremendous respect and gravitas from her subjects. She is a Grand Master of several Tajaran martial arts, capable of fighting some of the most powerful races and readily winning. She tends to frequent House Astameur's boutiques, commonly dressed in highly revealing white and purple robes.
Sheneocyre, The Iron Sanctuary, is the fiefdom of House Parigari, originally a Toriganii planetary shipyard won in a duel between the Shipmaster and the Lord of Thunder. A world of semi-arid climates and snowy mountains, fantastic new weapons are displayed to crowds of paying visitors, flying drones and efforts in teleportation as well. Genetic and mechanical modification clinics exist here as well in collaboration with [[#Verikami|House Verikami}}, some of the only to be found in the Empire, newer and more luxurious housing having to be constructed for the mass amount of patients.
The Seventh House
House Fendrinth is the Seventh House; normally, only referred to as the Seventh House. An outlier and the most despicable of the Six and One, their history is one of guilt and failure.
Originally, the members of House Fendrinth were the Emperor's own forces, own family, and own House as well. Her personal executioners, His royal sailors, Their exquisite infantry. As warriors, they enjoyed high prestige and special privileges, even the right to execute those of lower social status if it was a matter of self-defense, or grave offense against the Imperial Face. Widely hated, feared, or disdained by both commoners and nobles that received the Emperor's wrath, the Seventh House's reputation starkly contrasted with their appearance; given finely-crafted, golden ornamental armor suitable for use against the often very inferior weapons they were sent against. Their own war masks are the ones that House Morikann would parody after 'pulling them off' post-rebellion.
During the events of the Fracture, House Fendrinth fought back at first, holding the line for almost fifty days straight. However, seeing the odds turned against them and the Last Emperor betrayed by the Moonlit Society, the House had seen that their efforts were for naught against these pirates; surrendering thereafter and helping clean out the rest of the noble forces themselves. They were rewarded with their continued existence, but punished in almost every way imaginable.
In the modern times, the Seventh House's fiefdom is a former dungeon world where the Emperor's enemies were kept, simply referred to as Vajharji, the Place with No Light/Netherworld. Vajharji is unusual amongst planets for being tidally locked; one side exposed to zero sunlight, the other holding an extremely hot sea at the zenith. The main continent of the Netherworld is Polalle, the Hibernating Valley. It is comparatively teeming with life, half-shrouded in tundra. It receives so much snow that the accumulated weight of it forces it back to the sea as glaciers; many bleeding black algae.
While the normal council ritual is for a potentiate to survive for a year on their fiefdom, unassisted with naught but the clothes on their back and what they find along the way with only a few carry-ons-- this is genuinely impossible for the majority of potentiates from the Seventh House, leaving them without a councilmember almost constantly. Their world was intentionally never terraformed, if not actively made as unlivable as can be, as equal parts punishment and the Six not wishing for the One to exist as a tiebreaker. When a tiebreaker is needed, called upon by the Inner or Outer houses against the other, a Seventh councilmember is 'created' through the gift of airdropped supplies and other care packages. After getting them through the Palace, a race to either assassinate them or prevent their assassination.
In terms of contribution to the Empire, the Seventh House's work is in war. Not the privateering of House Morikann, or the muscling of trading vessels known from House Ussirune, but killing the Empire's enemies for the sake of killing them off; Heartsick behavior. They are utilized as mercenaries by each House very quietly, even by factions outside, and equally comfortable with the work of assassination-- all while still wearing their ceremonial armor and weapons.
It was rumored for thousands of years that the Emperor's forces had hearts filled with 'blood that was not their own,' but recent investigation has proven this myth to, a rare occasion, be perfectly true; the Seventh House is one of the few Houses that allow membership from Tajaran hemophages, with such contractees wearing fully-enclosing armor and only being allowed to feed on other races.
Despite their reputation and position at the bottom of the House totem pole, the Seventh House is nonetheless interested in repairing their reputation amongst Tajaran society. Their ambitions are a hushed whisper only spoken to those of the House Name, but in their black hearts they secretly wish to be seen as the golden warriors they dress as, hardly raising a hand against members of other Houses unless they are called to do so. Their members will try to engage their enemies with duels where possible, their adherence to orders from the other Houses stemming from a desire to actually be loyal to someone again.
Work in Progress: Footer subject to change at a moment's notice. Do not take a red link's presence, struck-through or otherwise, as confirmation (or denial) of their canonicity.
| Nova Sector Lore
| |
| Common Species | Humans, Tiziran, Unathi, Moths, Ethereals, Azulae, Slime Hybrids, Teshari, Synthetic Humanoids (and assorted robots), Pod Persons |
| Other Species | Genemodders (Felinids, Ice Walkers, Dwarf), Ashwalkers, Hemophages, Snailpersons, Ordoht (Formerly Skrell), Plasmamen, Flypeople, Vox (Primalis et al), Tajaran, Vulpkanin, Xenomorphic Hybrid, Rouges (Abductorkin), Miscellaneous Species |
| Nanotrasen | Nanotrasen, Central Command, Emergency Response Corps |
| External Groups | The Syndicate, Interdyne Pharmaceutics, DS-2, Cargo, The Spider Clan |
| Nova | The Nova Sector, Indecipheres, Freyja |
| Concepts | Bluespace, Plasma, Faster Than Light Travel, Resonance ("Souls"), Death |
| SolFed | SolFed, Earth in 2565, |
