Formerly the 14th house of now ruined Ched Nasad; the surviving members of House Helviiryn abandoned their ancestral hold after the city’s destruction and sought refuge elsewhere. Initially the remaining members sequestered themselves away in a hidden bolthole until the family could regain a measure of wealth and reconsolidate what power the house had left (mainly its trading coster). House Helviiryn has managed to relocate to the drow hold Karsoluthiyl and establish itself again as a proper noble family in the city’s power structure.
At first, the house began increasing its trading operation in the city while seeking the patronage of a noble family hungry to increase its stature in Karsoluthiyl and it found the sponsor it sought through the patronage of Maertor, a minor noble house located in the Dwyrdun quarter of Karsoluthiyl. Maertor was chosen, not only because of their low ranking in the hierarchy of the city, but also because of their location in one of the poorer districts of Karsoluthiyl. The latter of which House Helviiryn viewed as important to building its power base once Maertor was deposed.
The trap set, House Helviiryn teased Maertor with ever-growing amounts of wealth and introduced various members of the Helviiryn clan as houseless refugees from Ched Nasad. Once it had successfully infiltrated Maertor, the Helviiryn clan began to foment unrest by eliminating key people and created the illusion another family sought to snatch away what Maertor had gained. House Helviiryn waited for a particularly violent social upheaval to occur and they went to task eliminating House Maertor. In the end, House Maertor was no more and House Helviiryn stood in its stead.
In the three years since the destruction of Ched Nasad, House Helviiryn as been able to successfully insinuate itself in the power structure of the city as a minor power barely beneath the notice of the ruling elite despite having far more resources than a house of their rank should possess. As for Karsoluthiyl, the house maintains a low profile as it begins to subtlety influence seemingly disparate events and individuals in its bid to climb the hierarchy in the city even as it tries to appear as neutral as possible.
The house also seeks to build popular support by aiding the surrounding district through patrols, recruiting commoners into its fighting force and providing protection (for a price) to people and businesses within the Dwyrdun district.
The current leader of House Helviiryn is the matriarch Elaele Hai’Kaz Helviiryn; she had successfully held her position without major incident over House Helviiryn for nearly 400 years. Already an established house, Elaele saw minor increases in power under her rule, but she largely concentrated her efforts on growing the family’s trade business ultimately as a means to gather the strength necessary to increase the family’s rank in the city and vault it into one of the ruling elite of Ched Nasad. Her plan came to a crashing end when the attack on Ched Nasad left the city in ruin (House Helviiryn was one of the few families that had chosen to build into the walls of the city rather than the calcified webbing). The matron however still commands a fair bit of power both through Orbb’Colbauth Belind (the Spider Path Trading Coster in the drow tongue) and the Velve’veldrin. The former House Helviiryn’s chief income creator and the latter a shadowy network akin to an assassins guild that the matron uses to ruthlessly maintain her grip over Orbb’Colbauth Belind and House Helviiryn while eliminating aggressive rivals to both the business and the family.
The Spider path-trading coster, originally a slaving operation in the days when the drow were more insular and more concerned about building their strongholds grew into its present form as the great cities and holds were established and drow tastes grew for wares that are more exotic. In time, the slave trade waned as it became more profitable to secure the rare and unusual from those willing to trade with the drow both in the sunlight world above and in the Underdark below.
Today, Orbb’Colbauth Belind’s operation spans the northern and central Underdark ferrying goods to every major city and minor hold willing to trade with the coster. It still dabbles in slavery, but for the most part it concerns itself with exotic goods ranging from food and drink to weapons and magic. If there is a taste for something exotic, chances are, Orbb’Colbauth Belind can get it for both the world below and above as long as the price is right. One of the advantages to the coster with its far-flung operation are the many eyes and ears it has in just about every place it does business which allows the coster to be an excellent purveyor of information not only giving the coster another useful ware to sell, but giving it trade advantages as well.
Nominally, Orbb’Colbauth Belind exists apart from any of the various noble houses, the appearance being that it is an assemblage of independent traders working under a common banner for the security it provides. In truth like any secretive group, Orbb’Colbauth Belind is a layered organization with each layer only knowing little about the layer above it, reporting and passing its profits to House Helviiryn in the end. Ordinarily such an organization would suffer due to the natural disposition of the drow who staff it, but the matriarch realizes the value in rewarding her subordinates well in addition to making sure key positions are held by various extended family members and using the Velve’veldrin. The latter making sure things run smoothly, ensuring the loyalty of the coster’s members and by performing such deeds as assassination, kidnapping and theft when an overly aggressive competitor tries to cripple Orbb’Colbauth Belind.
The shadowy brotherhood of killers and spies that exists to enforce the matriarch of House Helviiryn’s will. Originally a mercenary company in the employ of the early trading coster for protection, Velve’veldrin’s fortunes grew as Orbb’Colbauth Belind and the family’s fortune grew and in time, the unique skills of Velve’veldrin where absorbed into the house as its members were replaced with people loyal to House Helviiryn.
Like the coster, Velve’veldrin appears to be unconnected with House Helviiryn (even the general family does not realize the house and the brotherhood are so closely connected and the coster thinks it is indeed an assassin’s guild or mercenary company). To help maintain its appearance as a separate entity, Velve’veldrin does operate as a mercenary company specializing in theft, kidnapping and assassination. Its members are exclusively male and drawn from various orphans, unwanted male children and the occasional kidnapping. The brotherhood is generally organized like most noble houses with the exception of having a patriarch who is responsible to the matriarch of House Helviiryn. The brotherhood maintains a secret stronghold where it ruthlessly raises and trains its members in the skills and knowledge necessary to perform its function. The brotherhood is rarely used directly by House Helviiryn to avoid any suspicious connection and the brotherhood can never be contacted for hire in the same city as the house.
The current leader of the Velve’veldrin is Ilphrin Khalazza, a skilled rogue who progressed through the ranks of the brotherhood to his position now, surprisingly; Ilphrin is a rather normal individual who took advantage of the attrition inherent in the brotherhood to get there. He is competent in his duty but secretly desires to split from both the house and the coster, but realizes the brotherhood is dependant upon the fortunes of the coster and subservient to the house and by dint the fickle goddess who might turn against the brotherhood if they should abandon Elaele and house Helviiryn.
The former Maertor abode is typical of a large dwelling in Karsoluthiyl; it is composed of a large stalagmite, which serves as the base for the tower that connects it to an equally large stalactite overhead with a ring of smaller stalagmites, which have been connected by a series of walls and a barbican forming a redoubt. The large stalagmite that forms the base of the tower contains various storage facilities and a dungeon with the primary entrance to the tower above reached by a winding path that rings the stalagmite and ends in a secondary wall and barbican above. The tower primarily houses the troops, servants and the facilities necessary to support them. Only the first few levels have stairs, the rest utilize wells of flying to connect the various levels of the tower and the stalactite above. The stalactite is reserved for the ruling family and is a miniature fortress unto itself.
Since it has occupied the house, the family has extensively modified it for its own use as well as improving on and adding to the defenses present. Magical and mundane defenses aside, the house relies on an impressively equipped and disciplined fighting force of highly trained warriors and fighters typically drawn from the ranks of commoners who show promise or have sufficiently impressed the family. The bulk of the force is comprised of warriors with the remaining fighters comprising special units bolstered with wizards and clerics.
:D :D Any more info about the Houses of Ched Nasad???I chuckle every time I think about the original piece I did on them and the location of thier compound. Before there where any maps of Ched Nasad, I had made one of a tiered cavern roughly "figure 8" in shape with the nobles in the top tier, merchants and the middle class in the middle, and the poor on the lowest tiers in an area that opened up to a huge lake that house aboleth and the like. Anyways I was never keen on the whole stalagmite and stalactite thind back then so I did a wall dwelling. When the first offical maps came out, I just moved it up a bit while thinking what a hard way to defend your abode with it accessible from al sides. then I heard about the stonefire incident and Ched Nasad's ruin and all I could think was "man got lucky there", next I suppose of course I read about Karsoluthiyl getting drowned out by a big crack overhead letting the sea spill in.
Btw, I think only 3,000 inhabitants survived the destruction of the city. Laughably, thats probably just over half the amount of troops available to House Baenre atleast before the war of Keeprs Dale
Where can I find a list of Ched Nasad noble houses? and also the probablity of them making it out of the cities collapse alive. I have a few Ideas for an RP that I want to atempt to string out online. Thank you in advance.
Have a look ...
http://www.dnd-gate.de/gate3/page/index.php?id=420