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Aphrosancti

“What was sacred once, remains sacred—even if buried in filth.”

Type: House Majoris

Alignment: Leans towards Concord with undertones of Serendipity.

Religions: They profess Begothism as one might wear an inherited cloak—ritually, and with slight disdain. True belief, if any, is buried under apotropaic gestures and an older reverence for ‘The Dream,’ a pre-Imperial numinous principle now mostly relegated to children’s stories.

Status: Prominent, landless by choice for over four centuries.

Current Holdings: Other that Buy-In in Baronies (which is rarely a position of Honor - it's often hard work, dirty hands) they shun Dukal positions. They maintain a quaint ritual presence in the Sepulcrum of Veils, which is nominally on "King's Road" domain right off Duchy Benthusi. This is a secret, upheld by ancient magicks turning the estate hard to see from a distance. It legally exists nowhere and therefore pays no tax, but the King's blood occasionally use it to hunt, nominally "respectfully".

Reputation: Aphrosancti in ancient times were poisoned with Dissonance, and this makes them somewhat vulnerable. They maintain a low profile of taciturn effeteness. They are whispered about more than it's addressed directly. Known for their ritualistic austerity, cryptic alliances, and maddening genealogical complexity, they carry the weight of sanctity and threat in equal measure. Allegedly descended from an ancient religion of Priests that worshipped "The Dream" (long become a quaint local folklorism here and there) in ancient times theyt refused the position of King during the age of "Dawn Of Conjurations". They have high pretense bordering on arrogance but hide their family curses. They tend to get what they want through ingenuity, connctions, if necessary massaged with gold.

Structure & Quirks: The Old Bloodline is maintained ritually, and and any prospective maidens eager to marry are tested. This sets bad blood. Heirs are chosen by the House in the Dream, consequtively born, and process selection often involves strange dream-geometries, genetic palimpsests, narcotics and shadowy divine consultation. There are currently three ceremonial Dukes who serve at The King's Court, and two who have Positions Of Great Honor in the Ministries of The King. No Duke of Aphrosancti has officially taken a military post in recorded memory. Doing so is believed to trigger a dormant geas known as The Golden Fangs—a hereditary madness. The House maintains a disproportionate number of Positions rather than Territories. They currently hold:

Their motto is typically unspoken but known: Non Flectetur – “It Shall Not Bow.”

Marriage Patterns: Aphrosancti marry in girls. The boys marry in the house, carefully to avoid inbreeding. Aphrosancti blood runs wide as the young tend to be womanizers littering the land with Bastards. Their blood runs through half the aristocracy. Instead, they assign brides and grooms to other noble lines as acts of political dispensation or sacred intervention and takes fresh blood from promising, strong, proven lines of lesser aristocracy. This is often seen as both blessing and curse. Children born of these rogue unions are sometimes recalled by Aphrosancti decades later to serve obscure oaths.

Symbol: To be Determined

Controversies – The Archiving of Elders

Superb metaphor. But you could lace it with even more sad grandeur:

“To ‘be archived’ is the house euphemism for senility, catatonia, and sorrowed withdrawal. It is considered shameful to die in Aphrosancti—hence most do not, at least not publicly.” Their genealogical records include at least four individuals who have never been proven to exist, but still hold titles. One is currently married to a Marquessa in the far Terrenuward (Towards "Terennu, what some colloquially call "east") of the Kingdom.