House Vaele
One of the five Great Houses of the Iron Empire, House Vaele rules the Heartlands from their capital city, the Emerald Falls. Vaele is shortened from De Vaele, which the House changed roughly 40 years prior. The Emerald Falls is a city built at a set of beautiful green waterfalls at the base of a small mountain grouping nestled south of Ydall's Heart. The Falls themselves are uniquely emerald in color, flowing down the small mountains and turning into a series of rivers likewise green water that then sprout a forest of birch trees around the city known as The Birchwood , one of the only truly lush areas in Iron. Members of the Vaele family are distinguishable by their lightly tanned skin, emerald-green eyes and hair that turns stark-white early into each of their lives. The Vaele banner is of an ivory stag skull with antlers made of thick birch branches and leaves. Beneath each sprouting birch antler is a downward flow of emerald making up the banner.
Simplified, House Vaele is easily identified by flapping banners of emerald and ivory, or emerald surcoats trimmed in ivory-dyed fur.
Principal Houses under House Vaele:
Arice Vaele, Matriarch of House Vaele. Duchess of Emerald Falls and sits on the Emperor’s Council as the real Vaele Praesitor. Granddaughter of Emperor Calavius Glore on her mother’s side, and the Father of House Vaele, Gorm Vaele on her father’s side.
- Her husband, Jorrel Vaele, Duke of Emerald Falls, Praesitor of the Heartlands. Technically House leader and husband to Arice Vaele. Always remains in Emerald Falls and rarely seen. Claimed the Vaele name through an ancestor technicality but was born into the Fenn House.
- Their oldest daughter, Marya Vaele, has many children to try and secure the lineage of Vaele for Arice
- Sir Gorholt Fenn, Marya’s first husband
- Eldest son of Marya and Gorholt, Ydest "Wisebelly" Fenn
- Wisebelly’s daughter, Nyla Fenn, Soulomancer at the Thorn.
- Wisebelly’s daughter, Avada Fenn
- Wisebelly’s son, Batler Fenn
- Youngest son of Marya and Gorholt, Sir Leo "The Anvil" Fenn, Soulsworn Knight
- Cayle Carantus VIII, Marya’s second husband
- Lineth "Cayle Twin" Carantus, son of Cayle VIII and Marya
- Lilith "Cayle Twin" Carantus, daughter of Cayle VIII and Marya
- Arice and Jorrel's second daughter, Jenifire Vaele. Soulomancer and math teacher at the Thorn working on a new spell named Create Forest, which if successful would make her a Folio of Earth. Betrothed unwillingly to Sir Ludovicus the Bloodreaver of House Edricson.
- Arice and Jorrel's third daughter, Sharley Ghostwood/Vaele, wife to Sir Phantom of Ghostwood and mother of Shadow Ghostwood and Raven Ghostwood
- Arice and Jorrel's fourth daughter, Prylen Aegis/Vaele, wife to Gideon Aegis.
- Arice and Jorrel's fifth daughter, Kiren Vaele, betrothed to Grumio Rangor.
- Arice and Jorrel's sixth daughter, Kianne Vaele, betrothed to Marcis Valtoria , brother to Vanesha Valtoria and son of Sir Hasting Valtoria of the Inferno.
- Arice and Jorrel's seventh and youngest daughter, Vid Vaele. Later betrothed to Markas Sentel as insurance by Arice in case Sentel wins the election.
- Arice’s secret bastard son, Khasmus Vaele, the Alchemist. Arice Vaele who sought a stronger male seed to hopefully produce a male heir as a figurehead after having only seven daughters with Jorrel Vaele. Khasmus does not have the traditional white hair of the Vaele family, instead has a muddy blond. During the novel is betrothed to Vanesha Valtoria to secure the backing of her father Sir Hasting Valtoria of the Inferno.
- Nyla Ghostwood, an ancestor of the Ghostwood House, had an affair with the young Grag Vaele.
- Grag's bastard: Rustic Vaele. Son of Nyla and Grag. Took his father's name despite being a bastard.
- Rustic married Lullt Rangor and fathered Enyda Vaele and Classant Vaele. Both married men of House Isdemor.
Culture
House Vaele is mainly matriarchal unlike others. Almost entirely made up of women due to some blood tendency in its members and the House has been ruled by women for generations, using men as figureheads only. Possibly due to their further location from the capital Hero's Rest, Vaele are more of a reserved Great House and rely on themselves and their surrounding Principal Houses most of all. Unlike most of the Iron Empire, Vaele appreciates and utilizes the land to a much higher degree, oft opting for wooden structures or natural dwellings instead of harsh iron constructs. Generally, the women of Vaele are open and always laughing, sweet to look at and talk to. The men are often laughed at by other nobles for being more earthly in their mannerisms. They are larger, fans of liquor and meat. But all are loud and boisterous, living happy lives in such a green, beautiful area protected by surrounding towns from the worst of Vaskeer. This can all be linked back to their first ancestor, Gorm, and how he lived.
Public Agenda
Many believe the agenda of House Vaele is to strengthen the forces of the South in an attempt to draw power away from the provinces of Virnach and Old Iron. However, Vaele insists this is not the case as they are content with the way things are in the south at the moment, and do not want to bring unwanted attention and strife to the south. They view themselves as the most southern Great House, and act like it, looking down on the other southron Lords. The agenda of Vaele is largely viewed as brokering peace between all the other Houses who are constantly infighting and causing trouble.
Their motto speaks to the wild and animalistic roots of House Vaele, which are still present in their descendants. The emerald green eyes and white hair are reminiscent of forest creatures, while the stag skull with birch branches symbolizes the connection between the house and the land they rule over.
Assets
House Vaele holds the largest and highest quality woods in the Empire through The Birchwood. They export it all over Iron but it is most prominent in the construction of ships. In these woods they also possess great amounts of natural game through elk and other animals somehow unmarred by the Lost affliction that affects animals everywhere else. It is one of the only places in all of Vaskeer where natural, good game meat can be found. As well as this, the towns that occupy land in the Heartlands under Vaele's protection have prime land for agriculture, primarily wheat fields.
House Vaele was also gifted with a Priscillan artifact, the Panpipe of Arcadia, when it was anointed as a Great House by the Emperor.
Vaele possess the Bloodsteel sword Krynthor.
History
Looking at a family tree of all the noble Houses in Iron, one would think that Vaele is a new House. However, it is quite the opposite. The founding father of Vaele was a man named Gorm Vaele. A barbaric, large and hairy man that is thought to be the lost child of the Last King while he traveled around his new Empire conquering the land. The bastard child Gorm was still in his mother's belly when she became lost in the great Birchwood forest, and was forced to birth him there. Many claim that Gorm's mother was a washerwoman, or camp follower for the great Iron Legion that conquered Iron, and that they had found and made camp at the outskirts of the Birchwood when she became lost. There are even some tales of how boars and bears helped deliver the baby. The process killed Gorm's mother, and he was left to fend for himself since being a mere baby in the forest. Somehow, he survived and grew to be a vicious animal, more akin to the animals of Soleri named monkeys, than human. He lived in the forest, away from civilization for many decades, growing old and wise to the ways of nature without ever encountering The Soul Logic or The Lost since the Birchwood are so well-protected. One day, a woman lost herself in the woods, and Gorm helped her. This woman would turn out to be Lysal Tertius Mallus, Lady Heir to Old Iron.
History conflicts with itself here, which make the many stories of the origin of House Vaele all the more confusing. Vaele and their Historians say that the two fell in love, Lysal smitten by this manly, if animalistic figure, that saved her life and kept her safe in the expansive Birchwood. Others claim that the animalistic Gorm was a barbaric man that had never seen a human woman before, so he captured her and took her the moment he saw her, and many times over. Whichever is true, Gorm and Lysal had a child, Grag, and rumors of this child spread far enough that the Last King's son, Isidorus Glore, sought him out. Upon seeing Gorm, Isidorus recognized him as his bastard brother and acknowledged him in his father's name. They were given the Emerald Falls, previously held secretly by Gorm as his makeshift home, as land to start a noble House upon, and Grag was raised as a Great Lord. Gorm was taught the ways of civility by Lysal and they welcomed House Glore and other nobles into the Emerald Falls. All were awestruck by its natural beauty and wondered at how a place like this could have remained hidden for so long. Gorm claimed that he had protected the place from other animals and claimed it. Gorm claimed to have seen seventy summers when he met Isidorus, something the others did not believe, because he looked not a day over forty despite his stark white hair, and that could mean that Gorm was not Theodosius' bastard, but Lucianus' before him. Despite his claimed age, Gorm lived another thirty years to see his son, Grag grow up and claim the Emerald Falls. At this point, Grag, son of nature and Iron alike, saw the potential of the Birchwood, and the bloodline possibilities. Because Gorm was a son of the Last King, he was a direct descendant of the Glore line, and the Emerald Falls were so abundant with resources that he could control all of the ripe land that would later become known as the Heartlands. He traded and traveled, persuaded others to make the dangerous trek through the wilderness to find a better life in the South, and expanded his power to create the province known as the Heartlands. The House name, De Vaele, was of the old tongue, and it meant the Vale, or the hidden place, referring to the Emerald Falls.
Now, the Emerald Falls is as big a city as the Radiant Lance, and nearly as big as the Stone Labyrinth, but that has also brought with it the risk of Lost, and the deforestation of the Birchwood. De Vaele grew mighty in power, quickly becoming a Great House under Grag's leadership, their land so rife with meat and wood as it were, and people flocked to live among it. Grag had two daughters, Arice and Shana. This is where the line of matriarchy begins, as it becomes very rare for a male to be born in the Vaele line through Lady Arice. Shana fell in love with a Sentel, and moved away to the north. Arice remained and grew up never expected to lead the House as Grag tried over and over to father a son, but eventually, when Grag passed at an old age well over one hundred like his father before him, Arice took over the House. The Principal Houses that had settled in the Heartlands were in uproar, not trusting a woman to lead them, so Arice found Jorrel, who could tie his blood back to the the Vaele bloodline through Lysa Mallus and could technically call upon his House as Vaele instead of Mallus. The two married and Arice's rule was secure. Jorrel, much younger than Arice, had no wish to rule and no ambition, so he lives contently in the Emerald Falls while Arice works in the Emperor's Council in Hero's Rest. Arice's first few actions were to stop the increasing deforestation of the Birchwood and the much-too-fast killing of their wild animals all for the sake of more money. She set up standards and procedures to protect these vital resources that all of the South and the new Thundering Flats relied on to make sure they would last. The Principal Houses of Vaele have settled in the Heartlands, farming towns one and all, making the most of the good soil. They all possess large walls surrounding them to try and create a space free from Lost big enough to farm with. Farms outside of town walls cannot exist in Vaskeer. Now, it is said that Arice Vaele is near one-hundred years old herself. The Aunt of the Gargoyle, Markas Sentel, who the people make fun of for being a withered and stony old man.
Nature's Nobility
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De Vaele
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