House of Stargazer (Area of Concern: Knowledge and Research)
One of the eight "human" families, the Stargazer Family worship the The Sailor constellation and are concerned with knowledge and research. They oversee the Observatory and the Library, with the main running of each being the purview of Subvizier Pollux and Viziera Andromeda Stargazer, respectively.
Structure
Viziera and Viziera
Vizier Leopold Stargazer: Vizier Leopold Stargazer is a collector of magical relics, which he refuses to properly study for fear of the information getting into the wrong hands.Viziera Andromeda Stargazer (banished): Until recently, Viziera Andromeda Stargazer managed the Stargazer Library and oversaw a staff of dust Mephits, alongside her daughter-in-law and the terrifying ink spirit scrivener, Bartleby. She was banished from the court in a Whisper Vote on Takesday, Soldiermoon, 1313 for having illicit romantic relations with the female Jiaolung, Targatis.
Subvizier
Subvizier Pollux Stargazer: Subvizier Pollux Stargazer has been entrusted with the running of the Stargazer Observatory, due to his head for numbers. Pollux chooses to allow his family to believe he is lazy and introverted in order to safeguard his private time, which he spends with his secret girlfriend Katiba Britomart Ironside.Vizier's Other Children
Katib Castor Stargazer: The Stargazers only have one other child, Pollux's younger twin, Katib Castor Stargazer. When he was still a teenager, Castor received the greater share of the court gossip around his relationship with the "Spare" son of House Dargent, Katib Hugo Dargent. Since then prefers to hide in his brother's observatory whenever he's permitted.Extended Household
Katiba Cassiopeia Stargazer-Greenskin: Castor's wife, Katiba Cassiopeia Stargazer-Greenskin, works in the Stargazer Library, until recently under Andromeda's strict supervision. Now that Andromeda has been banished, she no longer has such a cruel boss, but she also has no-one to reign in her private illicit research projects. She is surprisingly supportive of Castor's homosexuality and even facilitates his secretly rekindled relationship with Katib Hugo Dargent.Katiba Ursula Stargazer (d.): Leopold's mother, Katiba Ursula Stargazer, lived with the family from the point he became Vizier, but had been so damaged by a journey into the Screaming Desert that she had no official family duties. She spent her days and nights ominously staring out the window at the constellation of the Sailor. After contracting the Shakes, she died during the subsequent Wasp attack by throwing herself out of the window and landing on the pointed front of the ornamental ship below.
Culture
Nightmares
"The Stargazers I know their Viziera’s mind. But not as well as I might wish to. Her nightmares are tinged by the messages of her deity. The things that it has seen on its many travels. There are corners of the cosmos even I have not had means to walk except through the nightmares of the chosen clerics of the sailor. A recurring one recently, you might call a prophecy if you were religiously inclined. The Sailor seems very keen for her to see one particular place. A large room deep in the centre of a city filled by a singular beating heart. A heart whose veins stretch up into the sky. And whose beating echoes the ebb and flow of tides beyond merely the mortal plane. Her dear husband, he has grown familiar with many nightmares. There are many nights in his younger days that he would awaken screaming on the dreadful warnings and judgements of long exhumed curses. These days he treats them almost as familiar territory. A strange sort of comfort in fear. The young son fears pain. And he wishes he had anything more meaningful to see in his nightmares. But, more often than not, no. Just pain. Wracking agonising pain. At the hands of a vicious noble witch. The elder son, far more mundane. He fears that his family be torn apart. He fears that they are irrevocably incompatible in their needs and inclinations. And he has lost every one of them over and over again in so many dreams."The Man Who Is Not There tells Lindie Asklepa the nightmares of the Noble Court.
History
Goldday, Thiefmoon, 1312
Katiba Cassiopeia Stargazer-Greenskin met with Subvizier(a) Satine Dargent-Laureat in a courtyard garden near the Noble Court, equidistant between the Stargazer and Dargent households.In an attempt to forge a better relationship with House Dargent, Cassiopeia made a gift of three books:
- Fabric of Time: An Archaeological Treaties on the Forgotten Textile Arts - for Satine Darent-Laureat
- A series of mini encyclopedias on the 20 Richest Individuals of History - for Subvizier Victor Dargent
- Signs and Sigils - for Katib Hugo Dargent
Religion
The Stargazers operate under the constellation of the Sailor, who values knowledge, learning and exploration. Since their noble duties include tracking and mapping the Constellations, the family takes a more scientific and scholarly approach to religion than most of the other nobles.
Despite the Sailor's tennets to seek knowledge in all circumstances (the Sailor's motto is "No Journey Too Far"), Vizier Leopold Stargazer is actually quite cautious of studying his own artifact collection too closely, lest unsanctioned knowledge be leaked to unauthorised individuals. This could be a result of the Sailor's effect on his mother, Katiba Ursula Stargazer, whose journeys into the Screaming Desert left her scarred and in a catatonic face-off with the Sailor constellation, or he might simply be tiptoeing around potentially angering the Honourable Company if forbidden knowledge made its way to the populace.
While most the the Stargazers seem generally willing to operate within in the boundaries allowed by the church, Katiba Cassiopeia Stargazer-Greenskin is secretly conducting illegal research into the extra and disappearing stars, including the forbidden Survivor Stars. If her research is discovered, it would be disasterous not only for herself, but also her mother (Vizier Kronk Greenskin) and her husband, the "spare" Katib Castor Stargazer.
What You Don't Know Can Hurt You
Founding Date
Mapday, Sailormoon, 1286
Type
Geopolitical, Great house
Leader
Leader Title
Parent Organization
Controlled Territories
Related Species
Related Ethnicities
Courtly Relations
House Dargent
Vizier Richard: -12 (Needle, Soldier, 1313)Viziera Guinevera: -19 (Map, Tailor, 1313)
Katib Hugo: -47 (Scrap, Tinker, 1313)
House Greenskin
Marriage: Castor Stargazer & Cassiopeia GreenskinVizier Kronk: +8 (Map, Tailor, 1313)
Subvizier Cassiopeia: -6 (Gold, Tailor, 1313)
House Ironside
Marriage: Pollux Stargazer & Britomart IronsideEx-Viziera Katharine: +30 (Scrap, Soldier, 1313)
Katiba Britomart: +10 (Needle, Soldier, 1313)
House Stargazer
Subviziera Britomart: +10 (Needle, Soldier, 1313)Katib Castor: -2 (Gold, Tailor, 1313)
Katiba Cassiopeia: -6 (Gold, Tailor, 1313)
