—His wife, JUNO ARELLO, co-owner of the ship.
—Their crew:
—BASSEM, a fellow Jaddian and the ship’s helmsman.
—SARRIC JUGO, a Tavrosi expatriate and the ship’s physician.
—SALTUS, a homunculus of inappropriate humor.
—EMAR and IMANI, twins.
HOUSE MATARO OF EMESH
Borne by Conquest
A comparatively young house, the Mataros of Emesh are one of several nouveau riche families that rose to prominence during the years of Imperial conquest in Norma and in the Veil of Marinus in particular.
Only plutocrats some few generations ago, the Mataros made their money buying and selling slaves, particularly bulk-order homunculi for agricultural and industrial labor in new colonies. Exceedingly wealthy, Armand Mataro—only a patrician—outfitted three private legions and used them to conquer Emesh without Imperial mandate.
Such private wars typified the Norman conquests, and those who were successful were granted palatine status. The Mataros are not yet aligned with any of the great ancient constellations of the houses palatine, being of relatively low blood and low status.
Emesh is an unimportant demesne on the very edge of human- civilized space, constantly under the shadow of the Cielcin threat.
Relatively poor, the residents have been trying to capitalize on the planet’s Umandh coloni, though the natives are so biologically alien that their usefulness as slaves is questionable at best. Still, the planet gets by on the export of seafood and petroleum extracted from the
seabed. House Mataro’s sigil is a golden sphinx dormant on a green field, sometimes trimmed in white.
Here follows a list of those members and retainers of House Mataro mentioned in Lord Hadrian’s account:
LORD BALIAN MATARO, third Count of Emesh, Archon of Borosevo Prefecture, and Lord of Castle Borosevo.
—His husband, LORD LUTHOR ASTIN-SHIN-MATARO, a Mandari man, Minister of Finance for the county and formerly of the Marinus office of the Wong- Hopper Consortium.
—Their children:
—DORIAN MATARO, presumptive heir to the County of Emesh, a young man in the year of his Ephebeia.
—His friend, MELANDRA, a patrician from a loyal family in Borosevo.
—ANAÏS MATARO, a young and canny socialite.
—His ancestor {LORD ARMAND MATARO}, first Count of Emesh, conqueror of the Norman United Fellowship. Oversaw the construction of the military base in Borosevo and the beginnings of the city itself.
—His household:
—LIADA OGIR, High Chancellor and chief of the palace logothetes, head of the civil service.
—LIGEIA VAS, Grand Prior of the Holy Chantry on Emesh.
—Her acolyte, GILLIAM VAS, a chanter and the grand prior’s bastard son, a genetically mutated intus.
—K. F. AGARI, chief inquisitor of the Holy Chantry in Borosevo.
—Brothers RHOM and UDAN, cathars of the Chantry Inquisition.
—SIR PRESTON RAU, the elderly fencing instructor tasked with teaching the count’s children.
—DAME CAMILLA, a lictor tasked with the protection of the count and his family.