The Dragonmarked Houses

The Dragonmarked Houses are Khorvaire's industrial and economic heart. To the Houses, their work is the reason for the high standard of living seen in the Five Nations, the only reason the luxuries of modern life have been able to reach so many people, and the organization that keeps the world working across dividers of country and peoples. To their detractors, they are tyrants in their fields, keeping an iron fist on the throat of the nation's economy, and willing to enrich their members at any cost.

The Dragonmarks

The houses have existed in some form for thousands of years. For some reason not completely understood, the many of the mortal races living on the continents of Khorvaire and Aerenal developed dragonmarks and the spell-like abilities associated with them, starting with individual families, and developing over the centuries into businesses and guilds. This took many forms, from the warlords of House Deneith to the tribal councils of House Tharashk, but by the modern day they are all well-developed businesses.
Individual dragonmarks appeared within several bloodlines, were passed down through families, and soon dynasties sprang up to take advantage of the dragonmark powers. Each family created an economic empire using the dragonmarks, and the dragonmarked houses developed into independent commerce states operating across multiple nations. Today, twelve dragonmarks shared among thirteen houses form the basis for economic power across the continent.
Each mark holds a power centered on a particular aspect of life, and each power is fundamentally constructive in nature. There may be aggressive manifestations of each dragonmark, but they trend strongly towards defence, creation, knowledge and control of their elements. The exception is aberrant marks - appearing in a small number of cases, at random or in higher rates in children of two different marks, aberrant marks are unpleasant to use, unique in their powers, and trend toward destruction, compulsion and pain in their abilities.
Even though the house blood flows through the veins of every family member, not every one of them has a dragonmark; only a small percentage of every generation manifests a mark. Among those who do, the least mark is the most common to appear, with fewer lesser marks, and fewer still greater marks appearing in each generation. Those who do develop a dragonmark are labelled "heirs", and are singled out for great things in service of their house.
House family members form an economic aristocracy on par with the royal and noble families of the various nations, and family leaders are literally barons of industry and commerce. Each house also employs retainers and hirelings to aid in the family business. Those retainers and hirelings who show initiative and promise can rise through the ranks to hold important positions within the house, earning the right to use the house as their surname (without the d' prefix, of course). The most effective and promising of these might be invited into the family through marriage to the young marked scions.

The Houses

As of the current year, the following dragonmarked houses, their marks, and industries are:

House	Mark	Race	Influence
Cannith	Making	Human	Fabricators Guild, Tinkers Guild
Deneith	Sentinel	Human	Defenders Guild, Blademarks Guild
Ghallanda	Hospitality	Halfling	Hostelers Guild
Jorasco	Healing	Halfling	Healers Guild
Kundarak	Warding	Dwarf	Banking Guild, Warding Guild
Lyrandar	Storm	Half-elf	Raincallers Guild, Windwrights Guild, Pilots Guild
Medani	Detection	Half-elf	Warning Guild, The Thousand Yard Stare
Orien	Passage	Human	Couriers Guild, Transportation Guild
Phiarlan	Shadow	Elf	Entertainers Guild, Artisans Guild, The Serpentine Table
Sivis	Scribing	Gnome	Speakers Guild, Notaries Guild
Tharashk	Finding	Half-orc, human	Finders Guild, Mercenary Contracting
Thuranni	Shadow	Elf	Shadow Network, True Shapers Guild
Vadalis	Handling	Human	Handlers Guild

The War of the Mark

The War of the Mark, between renegade marked heirs and the Five Nations, stabilized the houses and ended the threat of aberrant and mixed marks that might have destroyed the economy of Khorvaire.
Long ago aberrant dragonmarks were more widespread than they are today, and they were also more powerful than the common aberrant mark known today. The dragonmarked houses—quite young at the time—used the fear of aberrant dragonmarks as a scapegoat, both as a cause that helped to unite the houses themselves and to strengthen public opinion that “true” dragonmarks were good, and aberrant dragonmarks were the foul touch of Khyber. There’s no cure for an aberrant dragonmark, and this led to mob violence and from there to more organized persecution on the part of the houses. During this time, the final and youngest Mark, Medani's Mark of Detection, was discovered and pressured to join the other houses,
“The War of the Mark” implies a conflict between two even sides, and this was anything but. Due to house propaganda, people with aberrant marks were feared and ostracized, and this was more of a witch-hunt than a war. However, as it drew on, a number of leaders emerged among the aberrants—people with the charisma to lead and the foresight to plan, and with enough raw power that even the houses came to fear them. These leaders gathered bands of aberrants around them and sought to establish sanctuaries or hold off other houses.
The band whose exploits are best known was tied to three powerful aberrants. Halas Tarkanan was known as “The Earthshaker,” and his aberrant mark gave him power over elemental forces. His two greatest allies were known only by titles. The Lady of the Plague controlled vermin and disease, and was widely seen as the most dangerous of the aberrants. The Dreambreaker wielded vast psychic power and could crush lesser minds. Others, such as Kalara of the Ten Terrors and The Tinker, are nearly forgotten. But, beyond his personal power, Tarkanan was a master strategist. Under his guidance, they seized the city of Sharn (which far smaller than it is today) and established it as a haven for the aberrant at the cost of many lives.
But the houses had superior numbers, resources, and discipline. Sharn was besieged, and when it became clear that the battle was lost, Halas determined to make the victory as costly as possible. The three aberrant leaders gave their lives and poured their essence into terrible death curses. Little is known about the impact of the Dreambreaker’s curse. But Tarkanan’s curse shook the earth and collapsed the old towers, while the Lady of the Plague spread deadly disease throughout the ruins and called up strange forms of vermin. Those few soldiers who survived the attack lingered just long enough to carry the plagues to their comrades; even in death, the Lady of the Plague inflicted a lasting blow on the house forces. Today it’s her curse that is still felt. The region known as “Old Sharn” is sealed off because it’s believed that her plagues still linger in the depths, and there are forms of vermin found in Sharn that aren’t seen anywhere else in Khorvaire.

The Korth Edicts

Agreements reached at the end of the War of the Mark formalized tenets and traditions that all the houses adhere to, and at the start of the Galifar Empire these were finalised into a set of laws known as the Korth Edicts. These include:

• Rules enforcing neutrality (all houses make a show of remaining neutral so that they can operate in all nations),
• Fair trade and practices, to maintain each house's reputation,
• Family naming conventions,
• A ban on marriages between marked members of different Houses, to reduce the risk of aberrant marks.
• A structure of organization, with family members running each house, with either a matriarch or patriarch serving as the chief executive of both family and economic business.

Later, when the Korth Edicts were formalised, more restrictions were added to prevent the houses competing with the empire, or acting as nations in their own right. The would-be king swore to protect the houses, agreeing to a number of provisions that would ensure their continued economic strength. In return, the houses agreed to restrictions on their political power.

• No member of a dragonmarked house can hold a grant of land,
• House Enclaves were limited in size, and a system of formal rents were established for their land,
• The houses were limited in the number of armed forces they could maintain, with the exception of House Deneith's mercenaries,
• No member of the aristocracy of Galifar could be married to a member of a dragonmarked house without one of the two giving up all heritage and rights,
• No active member of a house could also hold or be appointed a noble title, without giving up their house heritage.

The Twelve

The Twelve is an alliance of powerful wizards, all members of the dragonmarked houses or sponsored by them. They are the organization that accomplishes things beyond the capabilities of the houses, and where disputes between the houses are settled. Houses pay for their best and brightest academics to attend, and also sponsor a candidate each for a board of leadership that judges disagreements and guides the direction of their research.
The organization was formed after the War of the Mark, in an alliance proposed by Lord Hadran d'Cannith to unify the dragonmarked houses in pursuing magical research and profit. King Galifar I started the rival Arcane Congress of Aundair many years later out of fear for the growing power of the dragonmarked houses, not wanting to leave the pursuit of knowledge entirely within the house's hands.
It also serves as a way for the houses to police their own, and handle internal disputes. Houses Lyrandar and Orien, in their competition over the transportation sector, have brought many cases to their board, and the judgement of the Twelve's leadership has prevented violence so far. Infamously, in 797 YK, the elven wizard Mordain d'Phiarlan was banished from the Twelve and excoriated from House Phiarlan, after the other Houses found his experiments into the mysteries of the daelkyr.
As the power of both individual dragonmarked houses and the Arcane Congress has grown since the Last War, the Twelve has fractured and diminished. Today, fifteen members sit on the Twelve's board - one for most of the dragonmarks, two with the Mark of Shadow for the split Houses Phiarlan and Thuranni, and three with the Mark of Making for the deeply divided House Cannith.

Demography and Population

Each House has between 10,000 and 30,000 members. They then employ more people than that, with some such as House Ghallanda having nearly ten times their full members employed in hospitality as "bound businesses" or non-House employees. 
Within each house, 30% - 50% of their people develop a dragonmark.

House Cannith, the Mark of Making

House Deneith, the Mark of Sentinel

House Ghallanda, the Mark of Hospitality

House Jorasco, the Mark of Healing

House Kundarak, the Mark of Warding

House Lyrandar, the Mark of Storm

House Medani, the Mark of Detection

House Orien, the Mark of Passage

House Phiarlan, the Mark of Shadow

House Sivis, the Mark of Scribing

House Tharashk, the Mark of Finding

House Thuranni, the Mark of Shadow

House Vadalis, the Mark of Handling

Founding Date

Marks were discovered between -3300 YK (Shadow) and -1500 YK (Detection). Houses established between -3200 YK (Phiarlan) and 498 YK (Tharashk). House Thuranni split off in 972 YK.

Type

Alliance, Economic