View source for Minor and Former Houses of the Prosperitas Sector

=== The Myriad of the Nobility ===

Beyond the Great Houses there are hundreds of smaller noble Houses in the Prosperitas Sector, these are divided between the Vassal Houses to swear their allegiance to one of the Great Houses, the Cadet-Houses who take their names from the Great Houses from which they are born and double-barrel it with the chosen name of their bloodline, and the Lesser Houses which are often young newly-formed families currently independent of the rule of one of the Great Houses. Although a Vassal House, Cadet-House or a Lesser House are technically of the same social standing, a Cadet or Vassal House will be more appealing for marriage because of the guarantee of protection from a Great House.

Because all but a few worlds within the Prosperitas Sector were awarded to their various governors as ‘prizes’ for military service and outstanding actions in the line of duty, the majority of the noble Houses in the Sector are young by Imperial standards. Most of them trace their lineage back to Imperial officers and war heroes who were elevated to noble status when they were granted dominion over their worlds. These majority of these smaller Houses are too small and too numerous to cover in this entry, and their power is simply not enough to move things on the interstellar scale, though a few families of note are covered below.
 
=== Minor Houses ===


==== House Antoni ==== 

The hereditary rulers of [[Gaudium]], descended from the architects who designed the original cathedrals dominating the Hive-World, House Antoni once presided over the rulership of a planet bustling with life as pilgrims came to see the great wonders and expressions of faith crafted by the ancestors of the Antoni. This came with a price and soon Gaudium was flooded with pilgrims thanks to the actions of the now-fallen House Monforte, who the Antoni blame to this day for their house's ill-fortunes.

The House has recently enjoyed a small resurgence after Gaudium became the rallying point for the [[Ecclesiarchy Loyalists|loyalist]] elements of the Ecclesiarchy in the Prosperitas Sector. 

'''Governor Catal [[Minor_and_Former_Houses_of_the_Prosperitas_Sector#House Antoni|Antoni]]''' is hereditary Architect-Governor of [[Gaudium]]. He is notoriously hostile to [[House Monforte]], who he blames for his planet’s problems with overcrowding. It is an open secret that he toasted their destruction in 594.M41 with some of the finest vintages in the sector. Following the sack of [[Agrial III]] by [[The Temple|Fidelis Templar]] forces, [[Ecclesiarchy Loyalists]] flocked to Gaudium to regroup; he welcomed them in the hope it might raise the status of his world.


==== House Chenau ====

A new house, founded by the first Governor of [[Macharion CDXI]], Halina Chenau. Halina has yet to appoint an heir, and with limited access to Juvenat on the rough frontier-world, there is some concern that the House will die with her if none is soon adopted and her heritage and impact on the world lost to a less scrupulous Great House that might consider claiming the world for their own rule in the absense of a formal nobility.

'''Governor Halina [[Minor_and_Former_Houses_of_the_Prosperitas_Sector#House Chenau|Chenau]]''', an elderly but plasteel-tough woman originally from [[Helaerus]], is now Governor of [[Macharion CDXI]]. After a distinguished career in the [[Famous_Regiments_of_the_Prosperitas_Crusade#Helaerus_Reconnaissance_Regiment|Helaerus Reconnaissance Regiment]], Chenau was awarded retirement with full honours and the Governorship in lieu of higher command – some mutter that this was a ploy to get her out of [[Crusade High Command]] and far away from her political rivals.



==== House Dunkeld ==== 

House Dunkeld hail from the icy, strategically-vital world of Lerwick, in Subsector Secundus. The planetary governor of Lerwick is nominally appointed by the Administratum, but in practice this is a formality; every governor since Ulian’s pacification has been a Dunkeld. Though their reach beyond their world is small, their power locally is absolute; their political sway is backed with wealth from significant interests in the fishing and promethium-extraction industries. Their prominence in Lerwick politics is longstanding - they served the Lerwick royal family before the Imperium reclaimed the planet - and they are one of only the [[Annwfyn]] families to have any significant standing in the wider sector.

The family has resisted falling under the sway of any of the Great Houses thus far; the planet is proud of its independence, and its people value being ruled by sector-natives rather than Imperial colonists. Since the Regency invasion, however, Governor Alice and her wife, Ecclesiarch Ingrid, are in hiding, and their heir Astrid has not made a public appearance for half a decade or more; rivals on- and off-world openly question whether the family can avoid being deposed from below or subsumed from above.

'''Governor Alice [[Minor_and_Former_Houses_of_the_Prosperitas_Sector#House Dunkeld|Dunkeld]] [missing since 594.M41]''' is the Planetary Governor of [[Lerwick]]. Alice comes from an unbroken line of Dunkeld Governors since the planet’s pacification; she is not physically intimidating, but many opponents would think twice before taking her on politically. Her power grew due to a marriage of convenience to her wife, Ingrid, the Archdeacon of Lerwick; they have grown into a formidable power couple, which will likely ensure the unbroken lineage of Dunkeld governors continues. Since the [[Rising Flame]] uprising and Archenemy invasion in 594.M41, Alice Dunkeld has not been seen in public, and she is believed to have gone into hiding as-yet untraced by Imperial forces.



==== House Gaudin ==== 

A Noble House prominent on [[Butonia]] before the strife which wracked that world in the rebellion of 583.M41, House Gaudin fell into relative obscurity until the rise of the Popular People's Militia in 593. 

With the support of Lord-Militant Zacharias All-Souls-Cry-Out-For-Salvation Cadence of the Faith Militant, '''Lord Egon Gaudin''' was appointed as Governor. He ruled during a brief era of stability from 593-597.M41, backed by powerful local paramilitary forces, until his tragic [[Sector_Report_X|death]] in 597.M41 threw the world into renewed unrest.


==== House Maldigri-Durovera ==== 

A cadet house of [[House Durovera]], the Maldigri-Duroveras are the hereditary rulers of [[Monacus]], the Maldigiri-Duroveras have a reputation of being even more lavish and decadent then their superiors in House Durovera. The stories of the parties held by the Maldigri-Duroveras on their lush paradise-world are eye watering in their staggering costs - they are social butterflies with the current leader, Amari, rumoured to have ambitions towards an Imperial Charter and full Noble status for the House.

There are many less savoury rumours, however as to the less-than-legal practices employed by the House and its subjects when managing the pleasure guilds and casinos of Monacus and that the veneer of finery hides a House riddled with corruption. Many equally ask where the lines of credit for decadent celebrations that would outstrip most Great Houses come from, and to whom the Maldigiri-Duroveras owe favours.

'''Scion-Governor Amari [[Minor_and_Former_Houses_of_the_Prosperitas_Sector#House Maldigri-Durovera|Maldigri-Durovera]]''' is the Planetary Governor of [[Monacus]]. Amari is rumoured to have ambitions towards an Imperial Charter and full Noble status for their House. They are viewed with a mixture of resentment and intense pride by their subjects; ever since they gained the planetary throne in a freak baccarat accident which killed both their mother and all eligible sibling rivals, they have relentlessly pursued an agenda which puts Monacus first, even at the cost of endangering centuries-old treaties.

==== House Rauchstadt ==== 

The founding of Nivalis as a Shrine-World around 305.M41 necessitated the importation of large amounts of religious paraphernalia, and Sophia Rauchstadt, an enterprising trader from the Sol system, secured a generous contract to provide import/export for this undertaking. She became the founder of House Rauchstadt, a chartist house who historically derived the majority of their income from Church contracts. 

House Rauchstadt's fortunes were tied closely to the Church, and even more closely to Cardinal-Emissarius [[Grulge]] during his ascendancy. The House was one of the first to declare for the Cardinal in the wake of his excommunication and the [[Temple]] uprising, and was [[Sector_Report_X|punished]] along with other Nivalis Houses for its poor judgement. Stripped of lands and wealth and disgraced, the House now exists on paper only. Nevertheless, Rauchstadt-stamped goods, from candelabra to thuribles, can still be found in holy places throughout the Sector. 

'''Alastair [[Minor_and_Former_Houses_of_the_Prosperitas_Sector#House Rauchstadt|Rauchstadt]]''' was the head of the minor but wealthy [[Minor_and_Former_Houses_of_the_Prosperitas_Sector#House Rauchstadt|House Rauchstadt]], a trading House from [[Nivalis]], until the House's disgrace and his disappearance in [[Sector_Report_X#++_Current_Affairs_++|597.M41]].

==== House Stanford ====

House Stanford is a sprawling and rather well-to-do Merewaldian family, operating a reasonably large estate involved primarily in the tea trade (far superior, of course, to that terrible tanna rubbish from other planets). House Stanford controls an array of tea plantations across the planet’s largest continent, as well as boasting a considerable Household Guard, many of whom eventually find themselves in the Merewaldian Fusiliers. They are, as Merewaldians, deeply technophobic, and have a fine and long standing tradition of sending their children off for a brief stint in the navy or comprable noble profession before returning home to run the family estates as is right and proper. That being said, House Stanford has produced several notable senior naval officers and high ranking Administratum officials over its history. Even these figures are expected to eventually return home to settle down, however. House Stanford controls a large number of lowborn serfs and servants. Any Scion that fails to return to manage these assets flies in the face of centuries of Stanford tradition. 

Of Scions that gender themselves, there is a stereotype that it is a House of small, “firey” (if we are being polite) women and tall, very bookish men. Family gatherings are often quite terse affairs, where everyone is carefully being as polite as possible to each other, or hurling around some truly vicious barbed remarks. In other words: they are typical highborn affairs. They pride themselves on being loyal, upstanding, faithful and, crucially, Merewaldian citizens of the Imperium.


==== House mac Sachairi ==== 

The local noble House of the current Governor of Kirkcud, the mac Sachairis are an ancient Annwfyn lineage. Having risen to leadership of their world, they now find themselves caught between Imperial suspicion of their Annwfyn heritage and local hostility to their cooperation with the Imperium. To bolster their status, they have courted links with the Great House Roshan-Fikran; the current Governor of Kirkcud, Aoife Mac Sachairi, was educated on Mazar-63, and her heirs are said to be safely in the scholar-house's caring hands.

The members of the House not in line of succession are by contrast usually kept hard at work close to home; the family is too small and too embattled to fill key posts with kin, and their nobles find themselves rotated to new postings as regularly as if they were in the Imperial military. The eclectic experience this gives them grants flexibility, but whether it costs the House in depth of control remains to be seen.

'''Governor Aoife [[Minor_and_Former_Houses_of_the_Prosperitas_Sector#House mac Sachairi|mac Sachairi]]''' is Planetary Governor of [[Kirkcud III]]. A Roshan-Fikran scholarship girl, born on Kirkcud but educated offworld, she is caught between recalcitrant locals who see her as an Imperial quisling and Administratum censors who see her as too sympathetic to the restless natives. Distinguished herself in the defence of the planet during an [[Sector_Report_X#++_Current_Affairs_++|Archenemy strike]] during the Silence of 595-7.

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=== Fallen and Lost Houses ===

In the brutal environment of the Prosperitas Frontier many Houses do not survive more than a few generations, falling victim to rivals or simply the ardours of surviving on the worlds they have colonise. Others, have suffered darker fates and those still worth mentioning are listed here in memoriam and as a warning to those who follow them.

==== House van Heth ==== 

A [[Sarandeen]] vassal house previously responsible for the rulership of [[Kydos]], almost all the house were wiped out in a Toll War attack on the planet in 594.M41 and the majority have disbanded since as the rulership of their world has shifted and altered against them.

'''Governor-General Sebius [[Minor_and_Former_Houses_of_the_Prosperitas_Sector#Van Heth|Van Heth]] [deceased 594.M41]'''  was the military Governor of [[Kydos]], killed during the Toll War.


==== House zu Septimian ==== 

The founders and hereditary rulers of [[Olethros Secunda]] and close allies of the [[The Mechanicus Priesthood of Naximus Prime|Mechanicus]] of [[Naximus Prime]], House zu Septiman were known for their hostility towards Imperial tithe collectors whom they considered second in line to the Priesthood of Naximus Prime. All known members of the House, including Governor, Kojo zu Septimian, were killed by [[Archenemy]] forces during the sacking of the planet, and any survivors of the House seem unlikely to emerge given the notable demonstrations by the Archenemy of their execution.

'''Governor Kojo [[Minor_and_Former_Houses_of_the_Prosperitas_Sector#House zu Septimian|zu Septimian]] [deceased 594.M41]''' was the Governor of [[Olethros Secunda]] and the eldest child of the planet’s founder, Akwesi zu Septimian. Kojo was amongst the unfortunates who did not manage to escape Olethros Secunda after its invasion by the [[Archenemy]], who have eagerly broadcast their sacrifice to their dark gods before every request to an Imperial vessel to surrender.

==== House Van Der Vyver ====

Once known and well liked as the 'Healer House' of [[Korimesta]], House Van Der Vyver was revealed in 592.M41 to be a Warp Cult in service to the foul Plague God of the Archenemy, this monstrous betrayal ripped though the social order of Korimesta as it was revealed that many of the historic outbreaks of disease amongst the population had been down to the Houses cruel manipulations of the hearts of the populace. 

Though the House was destroyed by the Inquisition in the aftermath of the revelation of its true loyalties, the damage was already done, and the loss of faith in the Nobility played a big part in the spread of [[Rising Flame]] sympathies throughout the population of Korimesta that would lead to its failed rebellion against the Imperium in 594.M41.


==== House Monforte ==== 
Once a great House, House Monfore was the only House other than [[House Durovera]] to count a Warmaster as one of their renowned relatives, House Monforte was more widely known for their monopoly over interplanetary transport of live human cargo trading slaves as well as providing passenger vessels. This did not make them particularly popular, as their extortionate prices for transport made them intensely unpopular amongst Imperial Citizens who saw the House as money-grabbing parasites. This was not helped by the poor reputation of [[Timeline of Historical Events|Warmaster Monforte]], but was far worse by the end of its history thanks to a series of poor ventures resulting in massive financial losses.

The loss of the HMSS ''St Sanguinius'' in 594.M41 financially crippled the House and it was on the verge of losing its Noble Charter when it's tithe-fleet bringing owed revenue to Durovernum was suddenly and [[Sector_Report_VIII|mysteriously lost in the void]], the loss of its wealth followed by the death of many members of the family at the hands of assassins, resulted in the House being declared insolvent and most of its surviving bloodline scattering to the winds seeking shelter by marrying with their meagre possessions into lesser Noble houses.