Wolf noble families

From the Big Book of Wolves, or whatever - knowledge available to anyone

The House of the Wolf consists of the six great families: the Falgouts, the Escaleras, the Hartzells, the Rademachers, the Kizers, and the Truebloods, as well as many subsidiary families of ancient lineage such as the Maez, the Toussaints, the Ayottes, the Vermillions, and so forth. Two other great families, the Azures and the Szabos, have no descendants in the male line and their names are extinct. Of the living families, the Rademachers, Falgouts, and Kizers have held the Imperial throne. Of these, the Falgout family have the distinction of being the only family from amongst the original six Emperors to have living descendants in the male line. Deniel Falgout reigned from 85 to 92, Araille Falgout from 157 to 180, and Raya Falgout from 1830 to 1856. The Rademachers have produced four emperors, the greatest number of any Wolf family, a number exceeded only by the Dyess family of the House of the Bear and the Lail family of the House of the Ox. Luxinie Rademacher reigned from 1027 to 1049, Deniel III Rademacher from 1322 to 1328, Ruchard Rademacher from 1721 to 1724, and Deniel IV Rademacher from 1993 to 2016. The Kizers count two emperors: Kathan Kizer reigned from 1563 to 1609 and Luxinie III Kizer from 2137 to 2138. Only one commoner has come to the throne under the auspices of the Wolf, that being Temoura Wrenn, a soldier and mercenary who reigned from 802 to 814.

The Rademachers

The Rademacher family's antiquity in the House of the Wolf is matched only by the Falgouts' lineage. The ancestors of this line are said to have been present at the founding of the Empire, and have maintained and even increased their position and prominence over the ensuing centuries, despite a persistent strain of instability in the bloodline that has occasionally manifested itself in outright insanity. The family name means 'wheel-maker' in Archaic Aveyronnais, and one of its earliest identifiable members, Patriarch Thaleus Rademacher (d. 176), was seemingly responsible for formulating and originating much of the theology that would become codified as the Way of the Wheel, and perhaps for composing certain ancient texts that were later incorporated into the Almas Genara. This much is suggested in the History attributed to Emperor Orkael, who was writing almost two centuries after the Patriarch's death, and yet his reputation had survived and been passed down for that length of time. Certainly it is noteworthy that Patriarch Thaleus's tomb in the Saltgrove, though naturally much weathered by the elements and the years, appears to be the first to bear the sign of the Wheel as we know it today.

The family's best and brightest went into the church or studied sorcery for many generations, showing relatively little interest in politics. There is no record that any of them even stood for the position of Emperor prior to Luxinie Rademacher gaining the throne in 1027. Empress Luxinie had a more martial temperament than many of her brethren, and led her troops personally in putting down the rebellion of Duke Evert Nylander of the Iles Furneaux in 1037-1038. Prior to that point, she had been a well-liked and respected ruler, but after her return from the war, she grew increasingly erratic and paranoid, and spent the last years of her reign as a virtual recluse, refusing even to see her husband or children.

Deniel Rademacher assumed the throne in 1322, seemingly marking a new beginning for the troubled family. And indeed, he ruled well for six years, at which point he abruptly summoned the Great Council and announced his intention to resign the throne. There was considerable debate in the Council over whether this was permissible or not; there was no precedent for an Emperor's abdication - and much of the strongest opposition came, naturally enough, from his own House. Records from the deliberation were sealed; however, the private accounts of certain members who were present imply that Emperor Deniel expressed grave concerns about his own sanity - though what precisely those concerns were, no one dared record, at least not in any presently-available records. With the assistance of his cousin Venec Rademacher, a skilled lawyer and orator, the Council was eventually convinced to permit the Emperor to step down and retire to his family's estate in Telorre.

After Emperor Deniel's abdication, the Rademacher family fell into disfavour within their own House. They had previously held the Duchy of Creve Coeur, but it was stripped from them and passed to the Trueblood family, leaving them without a duchy to their name. It would take nearly four centuries before the Wolves would be persuaded to nominate another Rademacher for Emperor. It would prove to be a grave error on their parts. Emperor Ruchard was a promising young gentleman of twenty-two years, the eldest son of the count and countess of Unaka, and by all accounts a brilliant scholar. His final project at the Castalia, completed the year before he was chosen as Emperor, is still regarded as one of the definitive works on dream-travel. When he suddenly disappeared from his bed a mere three years into his reign, the Empire was plunged into turmoil. The Gentlemen of his Chamber were closely questioned, but if they knew some secret behind his vanishment, none of them revealed it. For six months the most powerful priests and sorcerers of the realm attempted to locate him, or even simply to determine whether he was alive or dead, without success. Purported seers and outright madmen presented themselves at the palace with rumours or visions of the Emperor, but none of them were able to locate him. The Empire was torn between hope that he would yet be found, and mourning for his apparent death. At last, and with much regret, the Great Council decided to declare him dead and select a new Emperor.

Yet again, the Rademacher family were in unfortunate circumstances; however, this time their House did not blame them for their failure as they had at the time of Emperor Deniel's abdication. A century later, Empress Raya Falgout, whose sister wed Bernart Rademacher, granted her brother-in-law the newly-conquered Duchy of Psyra, which the family has held ever since. By the late 20th century their reputation and fortunes had recovered sufficiently that, despite the inevitable jokes, another Deniel Rademacher was put forward as candidate for the throne, and won it in 1993. This Deniel, the fourth Emperor by that name, was charming, sophisticated, a talented poet and song-writer, and a dreamer who proved to be relatively uninterested in the day-to-day business of ruling the Empire. His mistress, a common-born woman of House Lizard named Athenais Kester, accompanied him to all Council meetings, and later in his reign even attended them alone to speak on his behalf; Deniel had at least chosen his Inner Council carefully enough that most of them were willing to work with her because of her obvious intelligence and wisdom. Whether it was due to her positive influence, or some change for the better in the family's bloodline, Deniel IV, though always somewhat eccentric, was not obviously troubled by the insanity that had afflicted so many of his ancestors.