House Ashseer
House Name: House Ashseer
Motto: “Smoke Covers All.”
Sigil: A tree wreathed in smoke and dripping blood.
Colors: Gray, Maroon and Brown
House Persona: Mystical, Detached, Wild
Main Hold: Little Ivyguard
Head of House: Voice of Reason, Eli Ashseer
~ Bio ~
House Ashseer serves as spiritual advisors, ritualists, and keepers of the Old Ways for House Blackwood. While they lack military strength, their mastery of ancient magic makes them indispensable.
Culture – House Ashseer’s is the finest producer of tobacco, incense, and herbs in all of Venzor. Their wandering caravans create custom components for oaths, spell-induced visions, and perfumes used in courtship.
Education and Arcane Mastery – From childhood, members are trained in druidic arts, reading the language of the trees and wind, and forming a close bond with the land. Their knowledge is passed orally through song, trance, and shared smoke.
Espionage and Subterfuge – House Ashseer uses a Secret Druidic Language, made up of of hand signs, smoke patterns, and coded bird calls that only initiates can decipher. Messages are passed between wandering Old Bloods without ever coming face to face.
Military – Ashseer’s military is made up of its three daughters, warrior shamans and skalds who fight with magic. Though small, many fear their arcane prowess.
Political Influence – House Ashseer oversees nearly all of Blackwood’s rituals ceremonies. They travel the land offering their blessings, and the common folk are eager to receive them.
Wealth – They travel the roads of Venzor offering healing herbs and medicines, interpreting omens, and casting spells for a small fee. While they are not rich by coin, their services are so valued that House Blackwood ensures they want for nothing, and many villages gladly offer food, shelter, and protection in exchange for their guidance.
FACTIONS
The Old Blood- The Ashseer’s make no claims to factions of their own, instead they boast a long lineage of ancestors who served the Old Blood. Many consider them to be the epitome of the clan, representing everything an Old Blood should be.
A Brief History of House Ashseer
200 years ago: As a wildfire threatens to destroy Venzor, and the Old Blood fight to contain it, Adrielle Ashseer takes to the long pipe for a prophetic vision. In it, she sees her house leading hundreds out of the fires and to shelter at Castle Durganon. Following what she witnessed, she treks into the scorching forests and finds dozens of villagers lost and terrified. Upon leading them to High Lady Blackwood, she is celebrated as the hero of the age, inducted into the Old Blood and named the Voice of Reason. The title is maintained by the house through the present day.
174 years ago: Adrielle Ashseer performs a week-long ritual at every cemetery in Venzor. At its conclusion the Old Blood claim to be able to speak with the dead and call upon the ancestors. Sceptical at first, House Blackwood is forced to celebrate Adrielle yet again upon seeing the validity of her efforts. Old Blood begin adopting Adrielle’s spells as truth, and works tirelessly to learn from her.
145 years ago: Adrielle Asheer’s dying gift to the people of Venzor and the Old Blood is the Druidic Language. They use it to warn House Blackwood of an impending betrayal by a rival lord, allowing the Blackguard to crush the threat before it could ignite.
92 years ago: Lirael Ashseer composed the Thousand Lipped Song during the Dance of the Harvest Moon, and teaches it to the masses. Soon all of Venzor is singing and dancing in trance, reunited with the spirits of the dead.