Category:House Trung

House Trung is a minor Cadet House of the Scarlet Dynasty, hailing from the kingdom of Blood River, northeast of An-Teng. The House was commissioned by the Scarlet Empress in RY551, after the Imperial Legions brought Blood River to heel and rendered it a tributary state.

It has its origins in two sisters, daughters of a serving girl from a peasant family originally from Blood River , that had turned to banditry against rafts plying the river, stealing valuable bronze. They were forced to flee when authorities launched an assault, resettling in An-Teng where they found work in a variety of odd jobs including tending elephants and as servants in noble households. Here too they engaged in theft, often seducing local noblemen or visiting Dynasts so as to exact support payments once pregnancies resulted.

When war broke out with Blood River , two young women of the Trung family saw opportunity, selling their services as scouts and guides… the Legions did not find their information particularly useful, as they were illegitimate children of a Dynast visiting An-Teng and had never set foot in Blood River. Nevertheless, their blood made them politically acceptable choices as ‘native’ allies, and when the younger of the pair Exalted into the Water aspect in a skirmish at the close of the war (when she was knocked from her elephant howdah into a river as she attempted to flee), it was declared a blessing of the Dragons, crowning the Trungs as enlightened and rightful rulers of the kingdom.

The official histories of the Realm and Blood River tell a different tale, of an enlightened line of outcaste Dragonblooded, relatives of the Scarlet Dynasty, who led the fight against an Anathema-tainted cabal which ruled their homeland. Travelling to the Imperial City, the young representative of the Trungs begged the Scarlet Empress for aid, and as she knelt in supplication was Exalted. The Empress declared this a sign from the Dragons, immediately declaring the family to be a Cadet House and deploying Her Legions to liberate Blood River.

House Trung is miniscule even by Cadet House standards, standing at only a hundred members, of which some dozen or two might be Dragonblooded. The Dragonblooded hold the bulk of the power, few enough to direct the House as a council, led by an elected Dragonblood who holds the position of Marchioness in Blood River (a post currently held by Trung Livia).