Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Khan_the_Destroyer Jul 15, 2015 17:32:11	The idea is that trusted members of House Vadalis with knowledge of ancestry and heredity would be assigned to families among the other Dragonmarked Houses as longstanding advisors. They would essentially oversee the development of families throughout the Houses and suggest marriages in an effort to steer the bloodlines in positive directions (higher chances of dragonmarks, or stronger traits needed in the House's guilds as examples). My questions are several I guess: 1. Is this even necessary? The Houses I think do this to an extent already. With Vadalis' expertise, would they provide a service better than what the houses have already been doing? 2. Would the Houses want the help? Obviously the Dragonmarked Houses work together through the Twelve, and are stronger for doing so. But would they want another House stewarding their bloodlines? Vadalis would only be advising, but is even that too invasive? 3. Dragonmarks aren't everything. Marriages are often arranged for other reasons and presumably this would still be the case among the Dragonmarked. Would a Vadalis Blood Steward be more involved in a House's affairs in order to suggest marriages that are positive in the case of heredity but also in line with the family's goals? 4. Presumably many of these stewards would be venerable in age, with knowledge of the family they are attached to spanning generations. Could this be a service delegated to some long-lived race (like elves) that would be attached to a family for hundreds of years? These stewards would be trained by Vadalis to know what to look for (as far as hereditary traits go) and how to essentially be match makers. Would it make more sense for this to be provided by Vadalis but actually handled by longer-lived creatures? 5. Blood Steward makes sense to me as a title for a position like this, but it sounds sort of vampire-y. Any suggestions for a title for something like this? Is there a real world analog? Is Blood Steward ok? Thanks for reading!
#2 Beoric Jul 15, 2015 21:55:08	I could see individuals in the Houses consulting Vadalis if they want to arrange matches for their children that are more likely to produce a mark.  But I think what is even more likely is to vet potential mates when someone marries outside of the House, to make sure they are not distantly related to someone from a different House (and thereby bringing the risk of an aberrant mark).  Orphans and excoriates have children, too, you know.   I also think that the Dreaming Dark would be very interested in such a service, and would probably risk mind seeding influential stewards.
#3 Tempest_Stormwind Jul 16, 2015 10:23:45	Caveat: Vadalis is probably the house I've thought about the least. (It sounds curious to say that; it's definitely not one of the super-prominent adventurer ones like Cannith, Lyrandar, Orien, Kundarak, and Jorasco, so that's understandable, but neither is it one of the less prominent ones like Medani or Ghallanda - and I spend a lot of time thinking about the underdogs (over a decade playing a Ghallanda heir!).) Khan_the_Destroyer wrote:
#4 Hashwin Jul 16, 2015 15:56:04	Family tree puns might slang the name into, The Arborist or Family Gardener. If they're the sort of person who doesn't just consult but actively 'prunes' family trees the way Leon was, 'a cleaner...' then they could be called the, Tree Surgeon. {note to self: insert Phiarlan or hobgoblin assassin Professional/Die Hard-ing their way through Shae Joridal at a later date}.   Since the word origin of secretaries was about them keeping official secrets, Secretary of the Blood sounds sufficiently (self)-important. There's also Marshal of the Blood, Blood Reeve for that Scottish flavor, Blood Attendant, Custodian of the Blood. Really, having blood as the descriptor can make any banal little thing sound bad-ass: Janitor of the Blood, Blood Twinkie, Paperclip of the Blood, etc.
#5 Khan_the_Destroyer Jul 19, 2015 19:51:39	I'm just extremely busy at the moment to get in a proper response. But I wanted to pop in and thank you guys for your insights so far!