The Founding of House Medani

Founding

The creation of house Medani.

Fifteen hundred years ago, the Mark of Detection first appeared among the half-elves (Khoravar) of the land that became Breland and they proceeded to organize themselves into House Medani. Of the twelve dragonmarked houses, House Medani had the lowest profile—and that is how the house’s heirs preferred it. The half-elves of Medani were the masters of the Warning Guild, through which they offered their services as bodyguards, inquisitive, and sentries to clients across Khorvaire. Medani was the youngest of the dragonmarked houses to originate within the Five Nations, with the Mark of Detection appearing only shortly before the War of the Mark began. The Medani families banded together in pre-Galifar Breland prior to the outbreak of that conflict but had few aspirations beyond being left alone. Only in the aftermath of the War of the Mark did Medani’s elders bow to the pressure of the other houses and take their place among the Twelve. Despite often strained relations with the other dragonmarked houses, Medani’s collective voice carries weight. The house’s warnings are ignored at the listener’s peril, but Medani’s iconoclastic nature makes it sometimes difficult to work with.   Though any number of organizations might claim a lock on the truth, House Medani can back that claim. Those who possess Medani’s dragonmark can sense arcane and divine power, the taint of poison, unseen intruders, or magical observation from a world away. All Medani heirs train in the use of logic, perception and techniques for assembling fragments of evidence into a recognizable whole. As allies, they are formidable; as enemies, even more so. The Medani alliance existed before Galifar came into being; a collection of families based in the former Medani provinces of what would one day become Breland. Already accustomed to blending into human or elven society, the half-elves of the Medani concealed their dragonmarks when they first appeared. A close-knit society, they were content to use the Mark of Detection quietly, building a reputation as bodyguards and scouts while attempting to avoid the growing conflicts of the other dragonmarked. House Cannith discovered Medani partway through the War of the Mark. At first, it was thought that the Mark of Detection might simply be a widely prevalent aberrant dragonmark, but that conjecture was soon discarded. Cannith finally tracked down the elders of the Medani families and convinced them (some say threatened) to take their place alongside the other dragonmarked houses. Even in the present time, distaste for authority runs strong in House Medani, giving rise to an aloofness that many dragonmarked heirs ascribe to the house. Medani is forthright in its views on inter-house politics and is an active participant in the Twelve, but representatives of the other houses sometimes claim that House Medani works against their interests as often as it supports them.