Heretic Apostate
First Post
I'm reading the Initiate Brother / Gatherer of Clouds duology (for the, oh, fifth or sixth time...), and enjoying it immensely.
It leads me to wonder, does anyone use great families in their worlds?
In the above duology, the Shonto are a Great House. Their ancestors have been great artists, generals, law-makers, etc. They attract talented individuals like a magnet attracts iron filings. How come? Because they are the Shonto. Other families rise and fall, but the Shonto survive. Throughout their history, they have been deposed at least once, spending decades in exile. They were on the losing side of a civil war. They stood fast against a barbarian horde, and though the patriarch died, the borderlanders still revere the fallen lord. Even an emperor wept at his death. (All of this is background for the novels, so I'm not giving away anything.
)
So, do you have great families? Not necessarily families for which everything goes right, but families that seem to grow in greatness through both good and bad fortune....
It leads me to wonder, does anyone use great families in their worlds?
In the above duology, the Shonto are a Great House. Their ancestors have been great artists, generals, law-makers, etc. They attract talented individuals like a magnet attracts iron filings. How come? Because they are the Shonto. Other families rise and fall, but the Shonto survive. Throughout their history, they have been deposed at least once, spending decades in exile. They were on the losing side of a civil war. They stood fast against a barbarian horde, and though the patriarch died, the borderlanders still revere the fallen lord. Even an emperor wept at his death. (All of this is background for the novels, so I'm not giving away anything.
)So, do you have great families? Not necessarily families for which everything goes right, but families that seem to grow in greatness through both good and bad fortune....
