Dragonmarked Houses
Despite the indisputable fact that no true or aberrant marks have manifested since the early years of the Cataclysm, most of the Dragonmarked houses managed to preserve themselves -- or at least rebuild themselves -- and are still great commercial entities in the present day.
Cannith
While house Cannith's artificers and magewrights are no more, the tools and texts of their trades perishing with the cataclysm, its alchemists and craftsmen have survived, and even flourished in the new, technological age. House Cannith is perhaps best known for their gunsmiths; almost all of the advancements in firearms since the fall of the Empire of the Falme should be properly creditied to Cannith.
House Cannith maintains its headquarters on the island of Thronehold.
Deneith
House Deneith flourished in the centuries immediately after the Cataclysm, but with the rise of large, professional national armies in the last two centuries, the House has fallen on hard times. The mercenary armies it can sell are sufficient to the problems of the small nations of eastern Khorvaire, but those the great powers can field leave Deneith hopelessly outclassed. Its personal protection services are still valued in Thrane, the Republic, and the Maradal Provinces, but the Defenders Guild makes its headquarters in Skairn.
Ghallanda
House Ghallanda is no more, except perhaps as the only Halfling tribe among the barbarians of the Alindan Plains. It was the remnants of the House that preserved in that much from what the Rajahs and Daelkyr and Quori did to the Talenta Plains, and to halflings that had nowhere to run.
Jorasco
Ulara, near the northern border of the Maradal Prinicipalities, is the headquarters of the Healer's Guild that was once House Jorasco. Though decendants of the dragonmarked halfling healers are not uncommon among its members, and, especially, its leaders, the Healer's Guild today welcomes those of any race who hear the healer's call.
Kundarak
House Kundarak took two great -- nearly mortal -- wounds in the cataclysm, in the swath of destruction the Great Evils cut through the Mror holds, and in the failure of its once secure magical vaults. Rebuilding a great banking House was a difficult process, and the dwarves were slow to accept that they had little choice but to allow humans and Khorvar in senior positions if they wished to continue. They have accepted it now, though, and operate out of Sharn.
Recent centuries have been kind to Kundarak, as expanding trade and improving communications have allowed the Banker's Guild to be a true multi-national power again.
Lyrander
House Lyrander is by far the largest and most powerful sea shipping conglomerate. Even without the Mark of the Storm, their knowledge and willingness to innovate in shipbuilding led to the first ships capable of sailing around the globe, then the clippers that can sail to Sarlona in half the time previous ships could, and now the steamships that are beginning to fill the rivers and oceans of Eberron.
stonegod said:
BTW: Where is Lyandar's powerbase? Still on that island that used to be in Aundair?
Yes, though the weather isn't as good there anymore (the spells that maintained the excellent weather before failed; lesser magics maintain the climate now -- it's nice enough, but no longer a vacation spot). The Kingdom of Thrane claims Stormhome, and has a bit more authority over the island than Aundair used to, but it's still very independent.
There's a recent movement in the house to move the home base to a port city on the mainland, because no one's figured out how to run a telegraph line underwater yet.
Medani
Without the Mark of Detection, there was perhaps nothing unique about the Warning Guild's scouts and inquisitives. That hardly stopped them from being relentlessly good at their jobs, and fiercely independent. Today, House Medani works out of Wroat, as it did for most of its past.
Orien
What Lyrander is to sea transport, Orien is to land transport. Aranging caravans and running courier services -- even an express post between the capitals of the great nations -- provided no small measure of wealth. But a little over forty years ago Eileen d'Orien demonstrated Orien's first steam locomotive, and today railroad lines are spreading across Khorvaire.
House Orien's enclave is still in Passage, though the city now falls under Thrane's juristiction.
Phiarlan and
Thuranni
House Phiarlan and the elven Enternainers and Artisans guild have long since passed. With only a handful of elves outside of Aerenal in modern times, they would have had great difficulty serving as spies in Khorvaire. Still, the last Dragonmarked mortals alive were elves of the House, born just before the Cataclysm. Thuranni's knives in the shadows surprised many when they turned their arts on those who chose to serve the Great Evils unleashed by the Cataclysm, but it gained them little.
Sivis
Unlike many of the non-human Houses, the gnomes of the Speakers and Notaries guild adapted quickly to the new realties of the world without their Marks and where humans and Khorvar vastly outnumbered the other races of Khorvaire. The House had already established a new headquarters in Flamekeep before the dawn of the Emprie of the Flame, and sold its services at the center of the rising new civilization. Still, most would claim the greatest achievement of the House was reached only thirty years ago, when Yalena d'Sivis demonstrated her telegraph.
Tharashk
While the half-orcs of Khorvaire have largely died out, the humans of the House have continued on as prospectors, inquisitives, and bounty hunters. They make their home enclave in Arthuun (now a major city), in lands that were once in Darguun and now in the eastern edge of the Republic.
Vadalis
Some believe Vadalis is in the early stages of a slow decline, as mechanized transport begins to replace animals. But though they cannot shape animals magically as they did once, they still are the premier breeders of all manner of creatures, and still profit handsomely from that.
