Each of the nine noble houses is ancient. Some can trace their origins back to the creation of the Republic itself, while others have been created since that time. For the most part, the noble houses are petty and tend to bicker with each other. However, if a house becomes too corrupt or power hungry, Empress Zin will unite the other houses against it and destroy it. She has done so in the past, and won't hesitate to do so again.
House Cuttleflare is noted for several generations of skilled warriors. The crews of their ships are greatly feared for their discipline and for their toughness.
House Dovestar has always been dominated by women. All of its prominent members are female, and the male members of the house have been relegated to lesser duties. The house is also famous for an unusually high number of priests. Many of the highest ranking members of the Church of Solran are from this noble house.
A famous and well liked house, Cometfall has, for centuries, captured and tamed comet steeds. It uses these magical steeds as a flying space cavalry. When fully armed and armored, this cavalry is very impressive in battle and has been the bane of many pirate ships over the years. A favorite tactic of the Comet Knights (as they have come to call themselves) is to swoop in and attempt to slay enemy crewmen with their silver lances. Because of their small size and great speed, they are very difficult to hit with large weapons, and by the time swordsmen can react to the threat, the knight is gone.
The asteroid of Wildflare is entirely owned by the Cometfells. They use it to breed their herds of their wondrous steeds, and allow the Lionspride to raise their herds of pegasi on it. Wildflare is almost completely featureless, with only a handful of forests or large hills. This is ideal terrain for raising horse-like creatures, and thus is used for that purpose. At any one time, this house can raise an armed force of 100-200 Comet Knights. All Comet Knights wear silvered plate armor and are armed with longswords, heavy lances, and hand axes. All Knights are either fighters levels 3-8 or paladins levels 5-10.
This house of powerful mages has been responsible for the creation of one of the Empress' most dangerous forces: a team of four krajens. This house has, over the centuries, been responsible for finding, binding, and taming these massive beasts. In fact, their house was founded over 900 years ago when its founding father presented a bound krajen to the Empress as a sign of his loyalty. She granted him nobility on the spot and charged his family with keeping a squad of the powerful beasts on hand in case of war.
House Kindori is well-known for its skill in herding and breeding Kindori. The house currently herds a pod of five of the creatures near their holdings of Star's Shoal. They raise the great beasts for the oil, bones, and flesh they produce. It might be noted that they don't actually slay the beasts; instead, they put them in a magical trance while they extract what they need. Once that's done, they cast powerful regeneration spells upon the creatures so that they survive the process and can produce more material in the future. After the kindori have bred and been "harvested" a few times, they are released into the wilds. All of this has made the house very rich.
The only house of non-humans within the Republic, House Lionspride was established by elves when they settled the Sunmist Valley. The elves came at an opportune time; House Voidragon was crumbling as the anti-slavery movement swept over the Republic. When House Voidragon broke with the Republic, its fate was sealed. In fact, it was because XXX Lionspride captured the most prominent members of the wayward house that impressed the Empress so much that she immediately replaced the Voidragons with the family of Lionspride.
Largely a house of over-glorified pirates, House Scavvar has seen the last of its glory days. Once, its captains and nobles were greatly feared raiders who worked to undermine the power of rival nations. However, with the destruction of Tharken (the last major foe of the Republic) two centuries ago, their time has passed. Today, they make ends meet by maintaining several scavver ranches on the asteroid of Skyford. They primarily sell the scavvers for their meat, but some are specially trained to fight upon command. These special scavver are used against pirate ships. During its heyday, House Scavvar could field a half dozen sunhawks. Today, it struggles to maintain two.
One of the most important houses (militarily speaking), House Hawkwing owns the only shipyard capable of building the Sunhawks. However, most of the houses own as many Sunhawks as they need, and the shipyard has been largely deserted. Though they are not currently building any Sunhawks, House Hawkwing remains very powerful. They use the threat of not replacing destroyed Sunhawks as their way of holding their high place with the other houses, despite the fact that they have been in slow decline for the last several decades. Their shipyard has remained inactive too long, and the House is in desperate need of revenue and new blood to reinvigorate their family. The only bright hope for the family is that the Empress is currently considering allowing the house to sell Sunhawks to private owners.
