Dramatis Personae
HOUSE MARLOWE OF DELOS
The Sword, Our Orator!
FIRST ELEVATED FROM PATRICIAN standing in the mid-eighth millennium by Duke Tiberius Ormund, House Marlowe has ruled Meidua Prefecture on Delos for thirty-one generations. Prior to that the Marlowes were military patricians, officers in the Orionid Legions with blood harking back to Avalon and the Kingdom of Windsor-in-Exile.
Julian Marlowe was strategos of the 117th Legion of Orion and proved instrumental in the defense of Duke Tiberius’s claim to the throne of Delos in the Second Aurigan War. For his service, he was elevated to the palatine caste and accorded the demesne of Meidua, then a fishing village of no consequence on a scrap of rocky upland. It was only later that the region’s uranium deposits were discovered. While under the reign of Lord Hadrian’s great-great-grandmother, the Archon Lady Sabine, House Marlowe’s wealth grew until its coffers outstripped those of House Kephalos. The Marlowes are distant members of the Imperial peerage both through their marriage into House Kephalos and more distantly through their ancient Avalonian connections and can be identified by their alabaster complexions, black hair, and violet eyes. Their sigil is a crimson devil rampant on a black field.
Lord Hadrian’s grandfather, the Archon Lord Timon, was assassinated in ISD 15861 by a homunculus concubine gifted him by Yuen Starcrafts, a starship manufacturer aligned with Delos’s exsul houses. They were outraged that Lord Timon had used his powers as the vicereine’s executor to secure a writ of monopoly for House Marlowe over all uranium mining in Delos System, destroying their profits. With the vicereine away at Forum, young Alistair was thrust
into the role of system executor and into war with the exsul houses when they declared poine against the Houses Marlowe and Kephalos.
The other houses had underestimated Lord Alistair, however, and were crushed at the Battle of Linon in ISD 15863. House Orin, the leader of the rebellion, was utterly destroyed, and system authority was more tightly concentrated in the planetary houses. For this and for defending her title, Vicereine Kephalos married Alistair to her youngest daughter, Liliana. Lord Alistair’s reign was hard but prosperous, characterized by the rule of law.
Here follows a list of those members and retainers of House Marlowe mentioned in Lord Hadrian’s account:
LORD ALISTAIR DIOMEDES FRIEDRICH MARLOWE, Archon of Meidua Prefecture and Lord of Devil’s Rest, former Lord Executor of Delos System, the Butcher of Linon.
—His wife, LADY LILIANA KEPHALOS-MARLOWE, a celebrated librettist and filmmaker and notorious womanizer, youngest daughter of the vicereine-duchess.
Frequently away from Devil’s Rest, preferring her own family’s summer palace at Haspida.
—Her mother, Her Grace ELMIRA GWENDOLYN KEPHALOS, Vicereine of Auriga Province, Duchess of Delos, Archon of Artemia Prefecture.
—Her sisters: AMALIA, CIARAN, RHEA, ALIENOR, ELENA, and TALIA.
—Her servant, MIKAL, a plebeian man from the Haspida house staff.
—Their children:
—HADRIAN ANAXANDER MARLOWE, The Halfmortal, The Sun-Eater, Starbreaker, Palekiller, Deathless. Responsible for the death of the entire Cielcin species.
—CRISPIN MARLOWE, presumptive heir of Devil’s Rest, a violent and callow youth.
—His parents, {LORD TIMON MARLOWE} and {LADY FUCHSIA BELLGROVE-MARLOWE}, both dead.
—His brother, {LUCIAN MARLOWE}, killed in a shuttle crash.
—His ancestor {LORD JULIAN MARLOWE}, awarded the demesne of Meidua Prefecture for services rendered to the now-defunct House Ormund. Began the construction of Devil’s Rest.
—His household:
—SIR FELIX MARTYN, Castellan and commander of the house guard. Also tasked with the martial instruction of the Marlowe heirs.
—His knights:
—SIR ROBAN MILOSH, lictor tasked with the personal protection of the Marlowe family.
—DAME UMA SYLVIA, lictor tasked with the personal protection of the Marlowe family.
—SIR ARDIAN TULLO, captain of the Marlowe pilots’ corp.
—KYRA, a shuttle pilot.
—TOR ALCUIN, chief scholiast advisor to the archon.
—TOR GIBSON, tutor to the Marlowe children and a minor functionary on the archon’s advisory council. A graduate of Nov Acor on Syracuse.
—TOR ALMA, personal physician to House Marlowe. Authorized to do work with High College birthing vats in the delivery of palatine children.
—EUSEBIA, prior of the Holy Chantry in Meidua Prefecture and a chief advisor to the archon.
—Her acolytes:
—SEVERN, a young chanter who serves as secretary to the prior.
—ABIATHA, an old chanter who runs the Chantry services at Devil’s Rest on most occasions.
—HELENE, chamberlain of Devil’s Rest and chief of the domestic and social servants, including the wait staff, cooks, maids, and grooms.