House Pandion
House Pandion is quite the young house, established only sixty years ago by Baroness Estelle. A woman who is, by all accounts, a rather lively and ambitious woman, even for her current age. Ruling over a chip of the empire, the only thing the Pandion lands boast of any importance is a deep water bay. Plying work upon this bay, is one particular shipbuilding company that the house owns, Pandion shipwrights. This company is the lifeblood of the House and goes back generations in the family. It was only through Estelle’s ambition and political maneuvering that this merchant family was able to jump to the lowest ranks of true nobility. Even as she retired, she keeps her son, Augustus, on track to further expand the house’s influence. Mina is Augustus’s wife and mother to all his children. A political marriage, they both seek the same goal and have fostered a relationship of mutual respect, though not one of love. Mina’s reputation as a warrior is well known in the region, and she is well respected. The trio seek to make further connections and in time, expand. In establishing these connections, they usually make use of Augustus’s and Mina’s many children. The heir and the spare are kept close, but everyone else is fair game to be married off or sent to become a ward. Currently, they’re building a slow, but excellent favor with their neighbors this way. Someday they might really be something. For now though, they're really not.
The Family
❧Baroness Estelle Pandion: The matron of the family, she’s never wed. Her way of keeping all the power to herself. Now at the age of 80, she’s slowed down. Retiring the duties to her only son, and making sure he’s competent to carry the family forward properly. She now spends her time doting on her grandchildren, great grandchildren, and having any threats to the family killed. Far keener than anyone would think to look at, it’s no wonder Estelle is the one who dragged the family name into true nobility.
✥
❧Baron Augustus Pandion: The only child of Estelle and age 65, his father’s identity has been in question for quite some time. To the family, it matters little, as he assuredly came from his mother. The spitting image of her, he shares also her keen eye and ambition. A fastidious man, he was more than ready to take the reins of the house when his mother was ready to retire. His reign has gone on more than twenty years now, and he has seen the house and its lands expand. Brokering alliances and trade deals which brought ever more power to House Pandion.
✥
❧Baroness Mina Pandion: Formerly of the Orte family, she is Augustus’s wife, and age 63. The daughter of a landed knight, she had little ambition to become merely a wife. Mina has kept this desire alive, despite her many pregnancies. A fighter in her own right, she leads House Pandion’s forces from the front. With Estelle fading into the background, she has stepped up further to become Augustus’s partner and pick up what slack there may be. Mina runs a tight ship, and that extends from her troops to her children. Little of her time is spent parenting, as she focuses more on the House and its overall survival, much like her husband does.
✥
❧The Heir, Gretchen Pandion: The eldest child of House Pandion at age 41, Gretchen is the heir of the House and all their lands. From childhood she has been raised and diligently fostered to be an independent and strong woman. Married already to another minor noble, the lands will see expansion someday under her gaze. In her middling thirties, she stands as council at her father’s elbow. Learning the ways of leadership and ruling from her mother and from her father respectfully. She has adopted her parent’s method of parenting her only child, a little girl named Gabrielle. Mostly by allowing Estelle to keep an eye on her and teach her.
✥
❧The Spare, Caspian Pandion: The second born at the age of 38, Caspian has lived in his sister’s shadow all his life. Being made to follow her steps and be as prepared to take over as she is, should the worst happen. When she finally bore a child, he was made to step back. No longer the spare he once was. Instead of looking to ruling the house as means of making his way, he looked to the shipwrighting business the family still owned. Taking charge there and inheriting from his uncle once he passed. Caspian has ingrained his place in the family through this act and through doing so has kept his place at the table. The ambition stoked in him didn’t stop, and he seeks to expand the business into other areas that might continue his own power moves. The ambition bred into him still alive and kicking.
✥
❧The Glad, Marinos Pandion: The third child of the household, and twin of Marina, he is 32. Sent as a young teen to ward at a nearby estate, he learned alongside his betrothed and eventually went on to wed her. His time is spent away from the Pandion lands, living instead with his wife Della. With the retirement of Della’s father, the pair have taken over that estate and run it well. He’s had the most children, with two little boys, Ernesto and Guiseppe.
✥
❧The Mad, Marina Pandion: The fourth child of the household, and twin of Marinos, she is 32. She was a bit more curious than the rest of the family, always interested in the magical rather than the mundane. Devouring what information she could get her hands on with gusto. Eventually, she was made to wed a man many years her senior, in part to her parent’s politicking. This became a great boon for her, though, as her new husband encouraged and fed her curiosities in ways her family didn’t. Even finding a mage for her to speak to. One day, she got to peek beyond the veil. Whatever she saw was so horrifying, she went quite mad. Leaving behind a daughter named Stella, she has been kept well in her house by her doting husband. Blathering about things no one can understand.
✥
❧The Lost, Adrian Pandion: A conspicuously absent member of the family, aged 29.
