House Abraxas

A comparatively young house located on the Western coast of Bal-Morath, founded in 90 IC as reward for its founder's services to the crown. It is said that to live within House Abraxas' lands is to live within interesting times; whether this is a curse or a blessing is up for debate.

Identity

House Abraxas are a family of patriotic tiefling sorcerers who try to make the best of a demonic pact none of them wished to be part of but have little choice other than to live with. They take pride in using their powers to better their lands, resenting the implication that tieflings are second class citizens within the empire and seeking to disprove that notion.

Wealth

Most of the family's wealth comes from trade via Port Abraxas, noted for having the calmest waters in the region thanks to a long standing treaty between the house and the local druids. In the past trade through the port had ensured a steady flow of capital into their coffers, but between dealing with the aftermath of the last war and the punitive loans they took out to sustain their war effort, the house's funds are stretched dangerously thin.

Politics

With their much of their fortune being made from naval trade and the current ruling branch owing their status to Imperial intervention, it should come as no surprise that house Abraxas tends to view the Empire favourably. Their first loyalty however is still to Bal-Morath; their attitude toward Morathian Imperial membership is that it should be a mutually beneficial partnership rather than a one sided affair, and thus often push back against measures that would reduce Morathian autonomy or otherwise harm local interests. They also take pride in their tiefling identity, believing that in spite of its source it's more constructive to make use of what it granted their people than lament what they lost. This attitude has led to some friction between them and the all human house Sarris. Finally, given their magical abilities house Abraxas are inclined toward employing sorcerous solutions to various problems, with varying results.

Strangeness aside, house Abraxas's lands are a relatively pleasant place to live. Whether due to wanting to prove themselves unaffected by the folly of their forefathers or trying to make up for their sins, the members of the house invest much into improving the lot of the people living there.

Notable people

Proteus Abraxas:

Amid the rise of the Cult of Orcus and the increasing alarm at the direction Bal-Morath's new rulers were taking, the Chancery received a tip off from one Proteus Abraxas that the state of affairs was far more dire than it appeared. He spoke of blood sacrifices and demonic summonings carried out behind closed doors, and terrible rituals condemning the souls of the unborn to demon lords. Indeed, it was because of one such ritual that he and a good portion of his family had fled their homeland, lest their objections to selling the souls of each of their firstborns to Orcus for sorcerous power earn the ire of the family patriarch.

In the aftermath of the cult's sudden dissolution, House Abraxas split into two branches; the deposed pro Orcus branch, and the empire loyalists (who were reinstated for their part in bringing the cults actions to light). It's unknown as to whether the pro Orcus branch is extinct, or in hiding and biding their time. Loyalists maintain close ties with the Chancery, while the Chancery keeps a close eye on them.

However, in spite of renouncing Orcus the family is not exempt from the deal struck with him, and to this day the firstborn of each generation will have their soul devoured by the demon lord. These cursed individuals have dealt with this knowledge in different ways: some turned to the gods in the hope of salvation, some became obsessed with life extension, some (like the notable naval Captain Kraken Abraxas) adopted a devil may care attitude, laughing at the world in the knowledge that the worst has already happened to them.

Another side effect of the Condition is that members of the family are notably more otherworldly than the average tiefling. Slitted yellow irises, large unconcealable horns, a faint smoky odour and (bizarrely) silvery-white hair number amongst the many odd traits members of the family have possessed over the centuries.

Trivia

Naming:

Nearly all members of the house are named after various mythical sea creatures. This can be attributed to their region of the Western coast being rife with legends of terrible sea monsters; In the distant past it was thought that by taking the names of such beasts one could ward them off, as even monsters won't attack their own. Now it's just a regional peculiarity.

The Bone Orchard:

During the last war, House Abraxas had often made use of the undead as part of their contribution to the Imperial war effort. This wasn't an act they undertook lightly, but shielding the living with the dead was something they considered to be the lesser of two evils. After the cessation of hostilities they elected to keep a small number of the reanimated instead of destroying them, returning with them to Bal Morath.

The Bone Orchard is the farm which grows the Abraxas family's food on their estate. Much of the unskilled labour is performed by skeletons under the control of a member of the House. It serves several purposes; the first, obviously, is growing food. The second is to give the necromantically inclined mages of the family a safe area to practice their control of the undead. The third is to teach them responsibility; each skeleton tending the fields is the remains of a soldier from the last war reanimated to fight because at that point, it was the best of the available bad options. They were reanimated in a life or death situation, and even now in hindsight it's hard to be sure if it was the right thing to do; now that the deed is done it's the responsibility of their creators to deal with the aftermath, whether by retaining control of them so they don't go on a rampage or by destroying them (the latter of which the family found distasteful, as it implied that it's alright to bring someone back from the dead then dispose of them as soon as their usefulness is at an end). A side effect is that the post-war generations of the family are quite unfazed by the presence of the undead, and are a little bemused upon encountering more conventional farms. A few have even raised the possibility of expanding the Orchard with additional skeletons for increased productivity, but this is rapidly shot down by older members of the house.