House Michaelis
Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 2:43 am
House Michaelis
Blazon: Azure a griffin's head erased or, per fess argent a portcullis sable.
Motto: Unto the Ending of the World.
Notoriety: Famous.
History: The founding of House Michaelis is shrouded far in the past, a time before the Sundering of the World where history and legend become difficult to distinguish from one another. Untangling myth from truth became increasingly more complicated after the rise of the Order of Reconciliation to prominence within Zaichaer, an ideological shift within the city that caused documents to be destroyed, altered, and hidden in order to adapt to the waxing power of New Atheism and human supremacy. What is known beyond a shadow of a doubt is that the line was established by a man named Michael, himself the son of an adventurer whom it was said sired his offspring in a land far from Karnor.
Now known as Duke Michael the Great in the modern era of science and reason, apocryphal texts refer to him instead as Saint Michael the Intercessor, a devotee of the Dragon God Aileor. Both versions of the story agree that he established himself within the mountains of the Northlands, establishing a sturdy keep dubbed Castle Windrock that would serve as the family's seat for centuries until it was abandoned in the Sundering. Legend states that from his holdfast, he and his knights would race to the rescue of both the high and the low from all manner of foul men and beasts, a feat that was maintained through the generations.
In time, their prowess became known to the rulers of the embryonic Kingdom of Karnor, the line of Michael swearing their fealty after ten days and ten nights spent in private with the King. The Duchy of Windrock was distant from the capital, and relatively poor despite its size, stretching across vast expanses of mountainous terrain that could ill sustain large populations. What mining and quarrying existed was often reserved for the upkeep of the duchy's defenses rather than sale, though a trade in gemstones ensured that the family did not fall into deprivation. The family would have almost certainly faded into obscurity, if not outright destruction, were it not for a King deciding to take advantage of the dynasty's talents. The Dukes were named the King's Castellans, keeper of his castles and guarantor of their defensibility.
Placed in a position of power within Zaichaer itself, the family swiftly took action to entrench themselves within the capital and the ranks of the high nobility, preferably while following their charge at the same time. Vast estates upon the outskirts of the royal capital were established from their own funds, a measure of their produce set aside for the capital's granaries. The fact that they also owed rents to the Castellan as the owner of the land worked served to more than repay the investment within the span of a generation. Though never lowering themselves to engage in criminal activity, the Michaelis retained a pragmatic streak, choosing to overlook and cordially engage with those enterprising individuals who always seemed able to bring goods within city walls no matter how many armed men wished otherwise.
The Sundering and the fall of the Kingdom brought an end to their most comfortable days, but the investments made within and around the capital ensured that the dynasty would endure. Fleeing their ancestral seat for their estate within Zaichaer, the surviving Michaelis swiftly worked to ensure that the city's food supply - and the source of their wealth - survived the coming chaos, more than a few of their sons and daughters falling in the chaotic days that followed. Though they held little affection for the tenets of the Order of Reconciliation, and indeed the Dawnmartyr named many Michaelis among their ranks, the dynasty was nonetheless able to read the writing on the wall and throw their lot in with the city's soon to be dominant power.
In truth, the family changed little aside from breaking their altars. The Dukes and their heirs had traditionally led their levies in person, and were well equipped for the new ethos of martial power translating to political power. Outwardly, they have accepted the present state of affairs as the best possible outcome for Zaichaer, but in private the family are often no more than surface level adherents to the ideology of the State. At present however, their own goals have been considered best accomplished by maintaining the status quo, with those scions of the dynasty stifled by its strictures typically married off to live their lives far from the city.