House Information

There are exactly seventeen major houses in Chaos (that make up the Council of Houses), and some large number of minor houses. When necessary, the Council of Houses elect the King of Chaos. The King does not need to be a house member or even a Chaosian, although tradition does tend to go that way. More often than not, it is someone ranked in a Guild, who has renounced House membership who is elected, so as to not give any one House more power.

At Realms Master Shiryu’s request, each House (major, minor or demon) has a House Head and a House Second, and each have rings to mark their position. All other house titles are up to the House.

By convention, the head of a House is referred to by the House’s name. For example, when REN was head of House Cara, he became known as “Cara” until he stepped down again. If someone has been a house head for a long time, their personal name may not be known at all.

In the Council of Houses, votes are tallied as follows:

The lowest-ranked house votes first, and on up
The lowest ranked house gets one vote, the next highest house gets two votes, up to the first house which gets seventeen votes
The tallies are public, and sometimes takes quite a number of turnings, so having the record, in case there is a recess, is important.

Because of house alliances (or sucking up) it’s common for a house to assigns its vote to a later one (eg. “Cara votes with House Pharaban”)

Relative house standings is probably determined by the Etiquette Guild:

The last recorded list and order of Chaosian major houses was:

Sawall, Mandor’s house
Chanicut, the house of the late Hero of Chanicut, Osric
Pharaban a house with a single member: Pharaban
Swayvill, a house composed of Jean
Felicity
Cara, the party house of Chaos and home to REN, Ilk, and Vlad
Trantor
Corona
Ganda
Darbin
Xartys - Currently somewhat allied with Cara, after their duel.
Helgram - since Helgram was physically moved to Amber, it may no longer be a Chaosian house. House of the late Neville, aka King Eric II
Yigrin
Moonlight, a house formed by PrincessChandra and composed of her descendants and others. It is reluctantly led by Caelin
Holtiharna
Timbal
Minoby

Notable former/minor houses include:

Hendrake - once a major house, then demoted, then annihilated. Claimed by Norton by right of conquest, but neglected after its desecration by enemies of Snarsht.
Arantantic - once a major house, but now demoted
Mousferatu - A minor house, on the rise, by squeek.
Sathonys - (Lord Tloluvin)

There are many more minor houses, including Demon Houses. There were more Demon Houses before Ilk’s Demon Melt spell became widely known. There were also many more Demon Houses before the Abyss and the Grey Zone both went away, during the cataclysmic event.

Defunct Houses Of Chaos:

Jesby, time-jumped ahead and subsumed into Cara, after which the two remaining members of the house (Bellahquist knows as Jesby) and Cathryn) died.
Barimen - banned as a house by Realms Master Shiryu. It happened recently, because of a power grab - this isn’t a pre-Pattern thing.

More information on certain houses: (More is always welcome.)

Barimen

The Chaos House (formerly known as) Barimen made an active claim that all descendants of Dworkin were members of its house. This claim annoyed Shiryu sufficiently that he unmade the house. (It might have been more complicated than that, but, from the outside, that’s how it appeard.) It is physically impossible for anyone to say the phrase “House Barimen” within the confines of Chaos.

One of the interesting talents of this now defunct house was that they were the creator of some very interesting place-trumps, based on a number of things that were not paintings, but objects. They worked very much as “portal keys.” Basically you touched them and let the desitnation that they were broadcasting fill your mind, and you would step through and be there. This was after one of themr members (Darkstar) managed to get all (people) trumps banned in Chaos. It is rumored that since these weren’t pictures, or of people they weren’t actually “trumps” and yet, that’s exactly what they were. They were also in competition with the Ways And Means Committee, so, depending on how politics went, these methods of travel were either very popular or not mentioned in polite society. It is thought that the art got lost with the house.

There are (presumably) still many survivors of the house, and some are known to have joined other Chaos Houses such as House Moonlight and House Cara.

Notable Members:

Dworkin - Mathematician and theif of the Serpent’s Eye
Darkstar - Trump artist and amazingly lucky individual
Cornelius the Great - Well known hero and skillfull individual
Cymnea - Managed to marry, put up with, and get abinitio-ed in relation to Oberon across a number of years.

Cara

The major house of Chaos for which Delta House is merely a shadow. House Cara is the party house of Chaos, and a party has been going on continuously for quite some time.

It was one of the surviving outposts of the demon-wave covering Chaos and had the honor of having Jesby formally surrender to them.

Of course, the party had to move when the physical house picked up a Variable Pattern infection, and, for a while during Toram’s invasion, the house was relocated to Suhuy’s Ways, but the party kept going on.

These days, the physical house includes four Old Lords, trapped by the Pattern probably after becoming a bit too close to the refreshments and getting stuck in the plumbing.

Vlad (no longer pattern-stapled to things) is the house head, although Ilk keeps him pickled in alcohol in Suhuy’s Ways for safekeeping. Yuri is the house second and takes care of what day-to-day business there is.

Notable Members:

Ilk is positive that there have never been, nor will there ever be notable members of House Cara.

Helgram

One of the Major Houses of Chaos, one of Amber’s enemies during the Pattern Fall War and one of Toram’s allies. Moved to Amber by Shiryu after Neville became both House Head and King of Amber.

Sometimes confused with House Hendrake.

Hendrake

House Hendrake had a long-standing, house-wide vendetta against those in Amber. Some say that this is because of a set of prophesies about them being removed from Chaos and systematically killed by the King of Amber.

Borel, using his position in the Warriors Guild, became King of Chaos and used that position to declare war on Amber.

This lead to several actions, including the kidnapping at torture of Malachai hoping to use him as part of the plot to bring down Amber, the attempt by Lintra to remake the prophesy, by seducing Benedict to try and put their child Triumph (and then later children or grandchildren) on the throne of Amber, and Dara doing all that she did, and the last, “do or die” attack on Amber near the end of Pattern Fall.

Claimed by Norton by “Right of Conquest”, after he took the remains of the house by force. Thus making the house a target of the enemies of Snarsht. These enemies so descrated it that it is now abandoned, all but in title.

All of these activities had the house reduced from a Major House to a completely empty Minor House thus, proving the prophesy.

Notable Members:

Borel - King of Chaos, guild second of the Warriors Guild, Head of House, and author of it’s lowest point in it’s history.
Lintra the Hellmaid of Chaos - One of the most successful generals for Chaos in the Pattern Fall War, Mother of Triumph, great-grandmother of Dara, mastermind behind the (failed) plot to subvert Malachai to the House’s needs.
Triumph - The first in a series of decendents scheduled to try and take the throne of Amber. Ultimately failed to evidence the necessary (first and foremost lack of Pattern allergy) traits.
Dara - Played a central role in the latter section of the Pattern Fall War, including successfully seducing Corwin and using him to get her what she wanted, on many levels.
Norton - House Head, claimed by conquest, and subsequently abandoned. Technically still House Head.

Moonlight

The newest major house of the Courts, founded by Princess Chandra for her descendents after the House formerly known as Barimen tried to claim all of Dworkin’s descendants as house members. Since then it has occasionally been known as a gathering foci for those of Dworkin’s blood. For good or for ill. Much to the occasional discomfort on all sides, tends to be allied with Cara, Swayvill (now that it is basically Jean), Helgram (now that it is in Amber), and Hendrake (now that it is basically Norton).

Notable Members:

Caelin is the house head
the Archivist (an alternate Caelin from Vanirs Wrath) is the house second.
Zorro, Princess Chandra’s insane former apprentice
Laetatio
Two Randoms, one local and one alternate. Random may have lost track which was which.
Martin decided to join the house of his family, on his Father’s side, although he does hang out at Cara a lot.
Some former members of a former house that sounded vaguely like Barimen

The physical house is surrounded by a moat of marbles, and the house has been disinfected once by dragon fire (and survived the experience).

Swayvill

House Swayvill is one of the 17 Major Houses of the Courts of Chaos. House Swayvill rebelled in opposition to the established order, and was slaughtered single-handedly by Zorro. (Well, he may have used two hands.)

After this, Jean inhabited the house, as well as the bodies of its members with any spark of life left. Zorro’s autograph, along with other interesting trinkets, rest on House Swayvill’s mantel.

House Swayvill is insistent that it be ranked lower than House Pharaban.

House Swayvill is patrolled by Jean Saucers, usually supplemented by Hamster Finndo, Hamster Osric, or Hamster Corwin.

Xartys

Somewhat fractous mid-ranked High house, has had some run-ins with Cara, but is now somewhat allied with them, and seeking to get closer to that side of the current power struggle in Chaos. Not for Cara’s sake, but out of respect for Pharaban and wanting to get on the side that will be less likely to bring the negative attention of Pharaban.

Has a more matrilinial tradition, for all that means amongst shapeshifters. (Basically you have to have birthed your heir from your own body, no budding, no egg-laying, but a live birth, so that the line can be verified that way.)

Has always been on the more fluid side of things, is rumored to have had a hand in setting up the Sea of Thought for the Philosophers Guild.

After the epic drinking duel, proposed that all duels be fought that way.

Notable members beyond the House Head and Second (Kairi)

Xartys (Hama) - House head
Firtha - Heir to House Head
Kairi - House second
Maribel - Heir to House Second