Historically, the Houses as a monarchistic
system of government
originated among the colonies with the decline of the First Federation, reaching
maximal influence during the Age
of Emergence. From the beginning, competition was intense,
especially in the old Federation, and only the most intelligent or the
most ruthless were able to flourish. In the Inner Sphere many of the
Houses were later absorbed into, or became client states of, the great
archailect empires. A few powerful Houses like Cygexpa, Metasoft, and Silicon Generation became
independent superbright and hyperturing empires in their own right.
Others fled to the periphery to try their luck in the new worlds. The
rest continued as quaint institutions, local baronets, or eccentric
micro-principalities living off former glories. Since the Empires period, throughout the
Inner Sphere and the developed provinces, the House system has been
limited to a local or clade-pride phenomenon with (sometimes) economic
or diplomatic overtones, rather than a political-military form of
government in its own right. These institutions are sometimes valued by
the hyperturing authorities for memetic
purposes or as means of entertaining the masses with spectacles of
royalty. In other systems they are barely tolerated and have to eke out
a living on mined-out asteroids or in kuiper bodies or comet cores.
Away from the reach of the mighty hyperturings and overruling AIs
however, the situation is very different, and in many of the more
isolated areas of the Hinteregions,
throughout the less developed Outer Volumes, and
along the Periphery, the House system flourishes as much as it had
during the late First Federation period. But as the AI Gods extend their reach
outwards, many of these ancient monarchistic regimes are forced to
resettle and develop even further out, and once again reestablish local
sovereignty
Great Houses A-Z
