House Lyrandar
Leader: Esravash d’Lyrandar
Headquarters: Stormhome (Aundair)
House Lyrandar has long ruled the seas. Their kraken-marked galleons harness air and water elementals and are faster than any mundane vessel. Control of sea and river trade gave Lyrandar considerable power. Now they reach out to the skies. Merely a decade old, Lyrandar airships have undermined the lightning rail’s domination of overland travel.
House Lyrandar also controls the air in a literal way. The Raincallers’ Guild can use the Mark of Storms to control the weather for its clients.
For many of the house’s members, the house is more than a family or business—its private island enclave, Stormhome, is the closest thing they have to a homeland. Baron Esravash is ambitious and often steers the house to act in what she sees as the interests of all half-elves. Lyrandar heirs help the Valenar elves run their young kingdom, and some believe that Valenar could become a true homeland for the Khoravar.
The Last War
At the beginning of the Last War, House Lyrandar was significantly weaker than they are today. Most transport, including military transport (troops and supplies), were carried over land, and House Orien with their caravans and trade routes, not to mention the lightning rail, were the carrier of choice for every nation and faction.
Lyrandar, in the early years of the war, made their money primarily in the field of weather manipulation: clearing rainy and muddy regions so troops could pass, using weather to make trade routes impassable (especially if they were Orien trade routes), helping regions in need of a good growing season because of enemy food raids, and whatever else the paying client needed. Lyrandar were always careful not to violate the neutrality demanded by the Korth Edicts.
However, Orien's trade routes deteriorated as the war went on, and House Lyrandar was there to take up the slack with a fleets of galleons to ship for clients via sea. They also sold ships to clients who could afford them.
House Lyrandar also provided Stormhome as a safe refuge and meeting place for spies.
Everything changed in 990 YK, when, with the aid of Zilargo gnomes and House Cannith, House Lyrandar produced the first elemental airships. Lyrandar, no longer limited to the seas, could carry troops and supplies across land faster than Orien could hope to, and the House of the Kraken began to completely dominate the transport industry. They would carry supplies and transport troops for client nations, but would not use the airships in combat so as not to violate their neutrality. They would, however, sell airships to nations willing to pay for them, though because of the price of the vessels, there was never a brisk trade in airships.
Unlike some houses, such as Orien and Cannith, who suffered huge losses during the war, Lyrandar completed the war without incurring much loss. And unlike some houses, like Jorasco, Lyrandar has not suffered much in the way of political backlash for the money they made during the war.
Instead, the nations they served largely credit them with providing weather for crops and preventing droughts, and their airships for giving the post-war economic boost necessary for the Five Nations to rebuild. Lyrandar's status is now arguably higher than it has ever been, and the future looks bright.
Their relations with certain other dragonmarked houses are not as rosy. Orien, their main competitor, still reeling from the devastation they suffered during the war, and particularly on the Day of Mourning, when they lost thousands of miles of lightning rail lines and the enormous transfer hub at Metrol, are increasingly angered by Lyrandar's encroachment onto what they view as their territory. House Cannith, who provided the initial design work for the airships, feels that it deserves greater compensation and wants a percentage for all airships sold. But while Lyrandar negotiates with these houses, their power and prestige continue to grow with the general populace.
