Ravenhorst Family

Family tree in spoiler.

Basic History



The history of the house of Ravenhorst is shorter than that of many other noble families. To start from the beginning, we must look to another family entirely. The Prescott family, they had a fairly sizable estate among the vast plains of the Skyplain province in the Ordawn empire, primarily amassing wealth from the vineyards they owned. However, the family ran into a problem. The head of the household, Graham Prescott only had daughters. Three of them, in fact. They each married a man from a different family. One day, while traveling, Graham was attacked by a group of brigands and killed. With no rightful heir, the three husbands of the three daughters fought for the Prescott family's holdings. Through a series of rather brutal encounters, one of the men, Kyne Ravenhorst came out on top. Upon taking control of the Prescott family, the first thing that Kyne did was change the estate's name to Ravenhorst, he was not a Prescott. A white and red checkered background with a raven in the foreground, the Ravenhorst house's coat of arms, was now plastered onto the goods that they sold. (lozengy argent and gules, and a sable raven volant with wings addorsed and elevated) The message was clear; the Prescott family was no more.



Kyne had three children, Erich, the eldest son, Fitz, the middle child who died of illness while he was young, and the youngest, a daughter named Lily. Lily married into the Eisenburg family, a well to do family with some small holdings near Goldthrone. Erich married a woman named Kenna from the surrounding area, and continued the Ravenhorst family line.



Lily had three children of her own, A son, Raphael, and two daughters, Sienna and Luna. Sienna and Luna both married men in the same family to help solidify relations between the Eisenburg line and the Hart family. The Harts were another family in the Goldthrone area, who had similar holdings and had historically been on good terms with the Eisenburgs. Raphael married a woman from a lesser-known family named siera, and had three sons of his own. Fredrich, the oldest, and twin sons Maximilian and Cedrick. Fredrich has settled down, and continued the family line with his wife Rachelle, and son Arthur. While Maximilian and Cedrick are part of a mercenary group along with two of their cousins, Jonathan Hart and Samuel Hart. On the Hart side of the family, Sienna had two children, Cordelia and Johnathan, while Luna had three, Lucia, Richard and Samuel. Richard has settled down with his wife Priscilla and has two children, Richard II and Christine. The happenings on this side of the family have been rather peaceful as the families get along well and spend much of their time together.



On the Ravenhorst side of the family, Erich had two sons. His eldest, Geron, and his younger Malik. Malik was 15 years or so younger. (subject to change on a whim if I decide!) Geron studied hard to learn as much as he could about the process of making wine, trying to innovate new methods, and figure out better ways to transport his goods to see them reaching further across the empire. Malik, his brother was more of the sellsword type, but they always worked together. When Geron had to go out of town, you could see Malik right by his side, defending him from threats unknown. They were close. Malik understood that he had no place being the head of a house, he didn’t know the first thing about being a noble. He just knew how to fight, and protect what he cared about.



Geron married and had two children, Vikel, a son, and Clarissa, a daughter, while Malik married a local girl named Ruby, and has a son Gerrad.



The “Tainted Blood” Incident



The start of the current set of problems for the Ravenhorst family stems partially from location. The Skyplain province is very close to that of the Deepwood province. Clarissa was seduced by the poem and song of an elf. He gave a different name at every town, nobody could say who he really was, just that he wandered, singing songs for any who would listen. Her son born of that encounter, Garrin, (that’s me!) would cause problems that were unimaginable.



Vikel was racist. He hated elves with everything he had. The fact that his family line was now “tainted” was something unacceptable. His hatred was no secret, and everyone could see the scorn he looked upon Garrin and Clarissa with. It eventually extended even to his father, who doted on Garrin as any grandfather would. This sickened Vikel.



The Tainted Blood Incident runs two fold. Vikel’s wife Mirabelle took her own life five years after Garrin was born, she was carrying a child at the time of her suicide. The common sentiment is that the child was not Vikel’s, they had been married a long time but had yet to produce a child. Word floating around is that Vikel was impotent, so they all figured that Mirabelle was not a faithful wife. Her suicide drove Vikel to the depths of despair. He was unsure of what to do, and Geron’s actions towards the “traitor” Clarissa, and the “impure” Garrin drove Vikel mad.



Two years to the day after the death of his wife, Geron dropped dead after a night of drinking, and the following morning Vikel claimed the title as head of the Ravenhorst house. His first order of business was kicking Clarissa and her spawn out of the family estate. The body was never examined, but rumor has it that Geron was poisoned.



During this time, Malik had moved off of the estate grounds, just being there when Geron needed him. He had his own small house with Ruby, and his first child Gerrad had just entered the world. The news of his brother’s death hit him hard, and Malik was unsure of what to do. He did know however, that he did not desire the leadership of the house for himself. Thus, he began plotting, thinking of a way that Gerrad could take over the Ravenhorst house.



The Heresy Plot (Currently ongoing)



With the banishment of Clarissa and Garrin, and the suicide of his wife, Vikel was left without an heir, a position that was quite vulnerable. If he were to meet an untimely end, or become otherwise incapable of running the house, rule would fall to Malik’s side of the family. Vikel wasn’t getting any younger, and was rather troubled by his lack of an heir. He went around sleeping with whoever was willing, in a desperate attempt to father a son. As long as it was an heir that had his own blood, it didn’t matter who the mother was as long as she was human.



With his eyes turned away from the state of his estate, it was the perfect opening for Gerrod. He had heard that Garrin had become a member of the Inqusition, so he quickly went to work building a hidden shrine on the grounds of the Ravenhorst manor. It was a slow process, that is taking place over time and is not yet complete. The shrine being built in secret is for Gormurg, the Blood Drinker. When the time is right, Gerrod will report this heresy to the church, and hope that Garrin is dispatched to deal with what has happened. A fitting end to the man that had forsaken his own family. Gerrod would be on hand to sweep in and scoop up the title of Lord of Ravenhorst, of course. This plot that is underway is not known by Garrin nor any of the members of the Eisenburg/Hart families.



The Iron Tempest (currently Ongoing)

On the other side of the family, Maximilian Eisenburg has founded a merenary guild called The Iron Tempest. His motivations in doing so, was that he was not the heir to anything, and wanted to perhaps see a bit more of the world with companions in tow. Perhaps with some acts of derring-do to have some stories to tell at the local pubs. Currently the members are:

• Maximilian Eisenburg (founder, leader)
  
  
• Cedrick Eisenburg
• Johnathan Hart
• Cordelia Hart
• Samuel Hart

Essentially, all of the members of their side of the family that don’t have anything to inherit, so they are a little more free than their siblings that are stuck learning the in and out of the family business.



The Iron Tempest runs on two primary rules:



1: Don’t do jobs that will tarnish the name of the family, and the guild


2: Don’t kill in cold blood



They are pretty straight forward and easy to follow. Of course any group that fights is bound to run into a few situations where they have to kill other people, but those people will tend to be villainous, rather than an upstanding citizen.



More to come, potentially.