Thoughout the Merlin books, we're exposed to mentions of the various Houses of Chaos. We see/hear about Sawall, Hendrake, Helgram, Jesby, and Chanticut. There might be a House Amblerash, if the Amblerash in Bances name is a House reference instead of a place reference ("Bances of Amblerash" could just as easily be a more poetically formal way of referring to "Bances from Amblerash" as it could "Bances of House Amblerash"). There might be a House Barimen (based on references to Dworkin as Dworkin Barimen, and assuming it isn't a middle name, nickname, or title of some kind), but even if there HAD been one at one time, it might no longer exist. But other than that, the number of other Houses (and their names) remains unknown.

(pausing here to note that, if any other Houses were mentioned or described in Betancourt's books, I'm unaware of it - and tend not to see them as canon anyway...)

So... how many Houses do you think exist in the Courts? If you've run games that take place in Chaos, how many Houses did you use?

Did you name them? If so, how did you come up with the names? Randomly? Via a specific naming pattern of some kind?

In your personal cosmology, are houses simply groups of interrelated people (like English or European nobility), or does each House tend to have a specific identity of its own, specializing in some way (like Hendrake being warriors, etc)?

I'm currently playing in a campaign as a scion of the almost defunct Barimen house from Chaos. My character is one of the last members, and the Barimen ways are long since falling to shambles, without the means to repair them. Barimen house 'fell' so-to-speak after Dworkins flight from Chaos. The house was shunned in major respects. Now, after the Black Road War, suddenly it's good to be part of house Barimen again. My character was even made an ambassador to Amber.

So do I like the houses of Chaos, and do I do things there? You bet! Yet another open playground that Zelazny provided for us to dally in.


I figure it as if it were noble houses from Shadow Earth's history. There is a rise and fall to each house, some endure, others slowly fade away. (Or abruptly if the wrong enemy is made). At any given time, I believe there would be dozens of houses that were more of the constant, or mainstay, whereas that number might be in the hundreds if you considered 'minor houses' that were little more than family names and rememberances of times gone by.


About twenty years ago, I ran a specific set of scenarios (modules if you will) that ran from a black road war standpoint, with 13 Chaos houses in control. There was no basis to the number other than I liked the number 13 so I rolled with it. I still tend to work that number into my games... Each house was defined, players were direct descendants of, or bound to one of the houses prior to the onset of the game.


The names for my houses at that time included Zelazny's and then a variety of mythical names. (I wish I still had all that old stuff, but it is lost to the many moves in the military now). Basically it came down to nothing more than 'what sounded cool.' If I were to do it now, I would probably go with a theme more, or do research into the names for added history that could be the writers 'easter egg' reflecting the house into our own Shadow.


Then, as now, in my games, I run the houses in multiple dimensions. A house starts out as nothing more than the family name, and the renown that goes with that. The House (group of people) then tend to make the name mean something by their actions and the prowess they achieve. For Hendrake, this came through battle. For another house, it could be through work with the Logrus, and yet another might be House Wayscitch that is known for the creation of Ways in the proximity of Chaos and the Shadows around it.

Funny, I play an envoy from Amber to the Courts, just after Patternfall (aka Black Road war in the Courts). It is envoy, not ambassador, because you need to offer your credentials to Swayvill before being recognized as an ambassador.
In our campaign, there was a House Barimen in the past. It is (officially) extinct in de Courts, it is more or less forbidden to mention the name, but the Amberites know they are descended from that house and the Chaosians know it, too. They even decided to give us the old Ways of Barimen as an embassy (although it took some time before we Amberites knew just which Way it was).

Regarding the other houses, there are about 14 major houses and most of them are from the books, like Hendrake, Helgram and Sawall. Amblerash is also a (major) house, not some place. All the major houses in the campaign are named.
The minor houses, well, who knows how many there are? Could be a hundred houses or more. We don't have a list of them in the campaign, and I think the GM makes up a name when he needs it for some NPC or so. So far we have heard of the houses Sharon and Asteraceae. Look up that last one, it is the scientific name for a plant family, and no, I don't think it is accidental.
It has been very interesting to put names my GM came up with into Google, not only the House names but also first names (or combinations of names), so it is clear he gets his names from various sources. If it sounds nice, fine, if it also has a meaning that is relevant in some way, even better!

I think the Houses are something like extended families or clans, so most people in a house are related but it doesn't have to be a close relationship. Those houses are old, after all.
Furthermore, I think each house has a preference for e.g. fighting or magic. Not all people in a house will share the preference, but most do. Kind of like a family business

It might also work kind of like tribe/clan subdivisions; the major Houses retaining some association (of varying strength) with families that branched off over the milleniato become minor houses. This both simplifies and complicates matters. (On the upside, you can draw their relationships as a tree. On the downside... you have to draw their relationships as a tree )

Beyond that, the status as "major" or "minor" could have more to do with power; a house might have risen to prominence while its parent house has lost some. As Mover says, houses have specialties that make them useful and important. Notice that, in the books, Sawall is close to the crown but not numerically large - but they've got some heavy hitters like Mandor and Dara and recently Merlin and Jurt, several substantially large Ways, and are on good terms with Suhuy. On the other hand, Hendrake seems to me to be a numerically large house... which has (or had), a whole bunch of Toughguy McBadasses like Borel and those guys who captured Coral.

Also, the adoption thing, which we don't have much info about, besides knowing that it's acceptable and that the new family rank counts towards the succession of the throne. I would think at least some of the major houses would occasionally poach someone good from their branch families, which would help them stay on top (and as a side effect might keep the minor houses down... but on the other hand the closer connection might actually pull the minor house UP).

I dread Google for this very reason. I've always thought it was neat to make obscure references to various books, games, movies, etc in setting and character names and descriptions, and would feel a burst of amused glee when a player recognized the allusion - now all anyone has to do is punch some keywords into a search engine and completely dissect everything.

On the other hand, Google and Wikipedia open doors of allusion that would have been incredibly difficult years ago, so maybe it's a trade off.

On the old board is/was a thread about names for Chaos Houses. The best idea I recall was using the names of medications. I was rather amused by Baron Adderall and Duke Celebrex.