House Thongolir

House Thongolir

Personages

Patriarch: Dolpherus Thongolir Consort: Areethe Thongolir (f) Heir: Ithlintulvast Thongolir (firstborn son) Membership (Nobles): 44 Predominant Faith: Amaunator, Deneir

Faction Details

Common Descriptors: Erudite, artistic, stoic Primary Classes: Bard, wizard, cleric, rogue, monk Alignments: LG, NG, N, LN, LE

Faction Ranks

• Favored: Rank 1. You are a favored member of the House. If you are a scion of the House, you have pleased the patriarch sufficiently to gain his notice. If you are an agent or retainer of the House, your efforts to aid the House have gone well-noted. • Lynchpin: Rank 2. You are given a position of some responsibility in the House's operations. If you are a member of the family, the patriarch considers you one of the favored scions of the House, and consults with you on matters of House importance. If you are an agent or retainer, your contributions and skills in service of the House have won you a position of no small regard and respect in the patriarch's eyes - although that may earn you the jealousy of his blood kin who are less favored than you. • Matriarch/Patriarch: Rank 3. You are the acknowledged and legal head of the household.

Interests

Trade & Interests: Calligraphy, limning, printing, landowning Holdings: Waterdeep, Berdusk

History

Ethnicity: Chondathan Founded: 1248 DR Previous Eras: 1354 DR

In many ways, the Wailing Years were transformative for House Thongolir. Originally a house of printers, calligraphers, and writers, with the chaos that came with the destruction of the Weave and the subsequent Spellplague years, much was lost in Waterdeep. The Thongolirs were on hand to lend their wealth and influence to the stability of the city. Many of the Thongolirs stepped up into civic positions within the city, bringing with them the weight of history from their archives, and exerting their position to help keep order.

Today, the Thongolirs have a reputation not just as writers but also as magistrates. More Thongolirs have served as black robes than any other House, even though noble magistrates frequently find themselves under increased scrutiny from their fellows; it has become a family tradition that all Thongolir magistrates automatically recuse themselves from any cases the involve the nobility in any capacity, to address exactly this issue.

This investment in Waterdeep's laws has shifted the House's religious tendencies, as well. While the Divine Scrivener Deneir remains important to Thongolir belief, a great deal of worship is also rendered to Amaunator, the Light of Law. The Thongolirs are currently involved in fund-raising efforts to see a temple built to that deity. They are also involved in the funding of the Monastery of the Sun, whose divine patrons includes Amaunator.

This devotion has also led to an avid investment by the family in Field Ward properties after the razing of the ward by dragon fire recently. Seeing the lawlessness that threatened to emerge from the ward, they now seek to help make it into a proper city ward, rather than a lawless slum. So far, however, those efforts are stymied.

Members of the Family

• Lord Dolpherus Thongolir: Patriarch (Renown 10) • 57 years. A dashing older nobleman noted for his good looks even past his prime, Dolpherus is a former magistrate of the city. His father insisted that he should serve as a black robe before he inherited, and Dolpherus is grateful for the lesson. Today, he is very concerned with the development in the Field Ward, and frequently can be found in the Palace speaking to the Lords about the topic.
• Areethe Thongolir: Consort (Renown 8) • 51 years. A daughter of House Irlingstar, Areethe was sure she would never want to marry. She found most nobles to be wildly vapid and self-absorbed. It wasn't until she met the serious and compassionate Dolpherus at her 30th birthday party that she reconsidered. The two of them are an excellent fit: Areethe heads up a small clique of very socially conscious noblewomen, who perceive the ultimate goal of nobiity to be the bettering of society, rather than the indulgence of oneself (they do not have a name for their group, but other, more frivilous noblewomen call them "the Broodhens"). Areethe is appalled at who her only son has shown himself to be, but is entirely out of her element for repairing it. The two of them frequently end up in great shouting matches, broken up by Dolpherus's calm.
• Ithlintulvast Thongolir: Heir (Renown 3) • 20 years. If Lord Dolpherus has a single source of frustration in this world, it is his only son and heir, Ithlintulvast. Ithlin and his father couldn't be more different: the boy is irresponsible, irreverent, and wildly uninterested in anything but bawdy parties and sleeping off his excesses. He runs with a clique known as the Smoking Club, for their love of hookahs and other inhalant intoxicants at their parties. Still, he's insightful and intelligent, and his father has hopes. Ithlin is sure that his mother despises him, however.
• Terras Thongolir: Patriarch's brother (Renown 8) • 50 years. Terras's great regret is his failure to win his lady-love, the Lady Nhaeran Wands. Her dedication to her Art left her no room for love, and Terras simply never quite found another he loved so well as her. Where originally he threw himself into his scholarship to impress her, it is now his only solace. Terras is such a scholar that he could work as a sage if he chose, and he finds solace in long hours in the shrine to Deneir within the Font of Knowledge, the temple to Oghma.
• Aelmen Massalan: Patrarch's sister, consort to Hylryl Massalan • 46 years. Dolpherus and Terras's younger sister, Aelmen fell in love with Hylryl Massalan from a young age. Though Dolpherus did not approve, she married him. Fortunately, in the years since, their relationship has improved.

Other Lines

Gulmos Thongolir Patriarch's cousin (Renown 4) • 23 years One of the handful of Thongolir cousins, Gulmos has won the family's regard for his pursuit of the poetic arts, a long family tradition which he excels at. The family is somewhat uncomfortable with his connections with shady individuals and the degree of his avowed hedonism and revel-seeking, but he is young yet. He is a member of the Popinjays clique, a group with ties to Twilight Vaeteru.

Holdings

• Resources Limit: If necessary, House Thongolir could probably generate about 34,000 gp in liquid coin and valuables within a month.

Scribeshall (Villa)

Feather Street, Sea Ward

The Thongolir Sea Ward villa is surrounded by more fence than wall: it is a low grey stone foundation of about two feet in height, with carved, eternally looping scrolls unfurling around its length. From there, a wrought iron fence rises, closely set enough that most folk have to stop to peer inside in order to see the grounds. The very top of the fencing is shaped to resemble pen-nibs, gilded with blueshine silver to make them stand out.

• The Scriptorum: The elegant two-story manse of the Thongolirs is a deep blue marble paired with parchment-pale plaster accenting, divided into panels with fine-wrought carvings outside the building, and paintings by some of the family's finest artists within. The Scriptorum has modest entertaining facilities, enough for an intimate gathering or celebration, but the Thongolirs have never hosted vast revels. The rest of the space is mostly familial suites, with servant quarters and a modest family library in the cellars.
• Limner House: Originally the house of a simple limner who married into the family, the Limner House has always been considered the heir's domain. Unfortunately, this means that with it given over to Ithil, it is frequently the site of raucous parties, or littered with folk recovering from same. It is a two-story affair, with ample space for entertaining.
• The Archival: A single story building crafted of the same grey stone as the lower fence around the compound, the Archival was originally a vast library. Its contents split between the city's archives to replace lost materials and the rest donated to the shrine to Deneir in the House of Knowledge, House Thongolir has since turned it into additional suites for its numbers.

Faction

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Overview

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Goals and Philosophy

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Activities

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Quests undertaken by agents of House Thongolir might include the following:

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Perks

Scions and agents of House Thongolir in good standing might receive the following benefits:

• xxx: Renown xxx. x