The Four Families

Legendary Blades of Seasons-Four

Description

The Four Families are four great houses that rule the Stackhold, a world adjacent to the Elemental Plane of Water and dangerously close to the void.

The Four Families are each individually empires in their own right, fragmenting down along hierarchies where each empire has its kingdoms, each kingdom has its princedoms within which are dukedoms then baronies, fiefdoms, and so on. The Families cooperate together, such that these four empires are themselves one larger global confederation usually with extreme liberties in how various branches of the families self-govern their lands. While they may be kings, queens, and empire, individual territories may operate on different political frameworks while contained under the standard hierarchy. Higher ups usually wont care so long as they get their taxes or a deal, contract, or oath remain in effect.

The families are House Monterral, blessed with the Grounding of Durendal, the sword of Earth-Fall. House Cristiscine, blessed with the Crystal of Curtana, the sword of Ice-Winter. House Bellarose, blessed with the Blossom of Joyeuse, the sword of Life-Spring. House Luminescra, blessed with the Radiance of Excalibur, sword of Light-Summer. Each family is associated with a legendary blade so named, each has dictate over the Seasons-Four, the seasons being managed by these artifacts in place of a true weather cycle due to the nature of the world they originate on. The blades themselves are long fractured, and were never physical weapons in the first place, but conceptual constructs forged of mind and soul. Since they were shattered, the fragments took seed in the souls of their original bearers who can manifest a fragment of their great power. These bearers became the Four Families. Linguistically, people refer to them- the blades and the families that bear them- as "The Seasons".

The Four Families represent a global ruling class, but also the majority of the magical community on Stackhold. Witches are born to the Four Families almost exclusively, and they have a higher prevalence of male witches than most of witchdom, though witch or not all descendants of the Four are capable of manifesting a fragment or shard of the Seasons-Four, at least within 2 generations of reproducing outside of the Four, before the fragment stops passing down, though this does not actually affect the strength of the fragment, only a yes/no condition of gaining one or not. Fragments can vary in size affecting mana and potency, which is largely random, though more powerful Shards are rare and have some level of predictability based on dedication to the Four Families, and a level of fated interference, usually manifesting for destined leadership figures or to correct an imbalance between the Seasons-Four, the greater the power of one Blade on the world, the longer and more volatile the season becomes. Meanwhile a season that diminishes can suddenly explode to overwhelm the other three seasons, resulting in Ice-Age-like events for example.

The Four Families are connected to broader Witchdom by gates when chaos saw fit to bridge the worlds in the past, and allow crossing witches who found the wild rift to establish gateways bridging the realms.

Location

Stackhold is the dimension of the Seasons, where a seemingly infinite ocean upon which the world of Stackhold floats. No other islands are known, but Stackhold has about 10x the surface area of Earth, formed in concentric rings each rising higher than the last. A diskworld of tiers, stacked with great oppressive cliffs, each ring having roughly the surface area of earth. The cliffs themselves are nearly as wide as the rings themselves but are not included in area calculation. Scaling the cliffs is incredibly difficult such that only the magically gifted do so with any regularity, typically bypassed with gates and rifts. The lower levels sometimes experience cataclysmic floods that prevents civilization from advancing and are treated like penal colonies. The bottom tier being completely submerged while the second tier sinks several feet below sea level.

Territorially, Stackhold isn't some Sci Fi show or game world where it's defined by one biome. Stackhold has all the environs you can expect from Earth and many more that cannot all be detailed, like at some points there are highly dangerous Upseas like colossal waterfalls traveling UP the cliffs, veritable odysseys in their own right to try to sail.

Likewise the culture varies across the Stacks as well, with different local customs and architecture despite the world sharing the same 4 overall ruling families but they really stretch thin and have widely different practices, and culture gets shaped by available resources and challenges facing the local area.

Relations

The Four Families have great relations with the Alliance, see Outsiders as a threat the same as anyone else but Stackhold seems resistant to Far Entropy, though not immune. Very friendly with Lunabella and Watchers, good with Hawthorne, some tension with Arcadia and the ORC, actively hostile with the Hespatians.

Season Shard

Rather than having a fragment of a legendary blade, you have a larger shard. When you wield Swordsinging, you may also match it with equal ranks in Naturalism (Spring), Firecalling (Summer), Earthmoving (Fall), or Waterworking (Winter), though it must be manifest through your weapon or use of swordsinging. When you use Swordsinging, you can summon a blade composed of that element freely, passively or as part of spells. This can augment an existing weapon or spawn anew. Swordsinging is half price for you, stacks with affinity.