House Petrakis
holds the County of Issa in northern . Its head is Count Meliton Petrakis. It is a vassal of .
History
House Petrakis rose from being a relatively minor house to holding the County of Issa in 470, in the wake of the same civil war that saw House Aetos come to power. Issa is on the border of The , in a wild region in the Duchy of Taras, a holding of House Aetos. House Petrakis has consistently aligned with its liege, House Aetos, over the years. During the years of Areti Aetos' rule, House Petrakis was directed to place its soldiers under the command of an officer of House Aetos stationed at Watch. House Petrakis, regarding this as a gross overstep of its liege's authority, refused, and aligned with other members of House Aetos in the ensuing coup.
In the decades since, it has continued to be verbally supportive of its ailing liege, but has also availed of the opportunity provided by the poor administration of House Aetos to become more and more independent, by way of eroding traditional norms of political gifts and not volunteering aid other than where strictly obliged to by law - which, with strict legal definitions being rare in Dyria, and indeed in much of the empire, means that House Petrakis has reached a point where it governs County of Issa as an almost independent polity.
The Petrakises have long-time ties to in the southern part of the Commonwealth. Issa borders the region of Gilvic, the home of House Zebdel. The Petrakises and Zebdels share a strong martial disposition and routinely engage in joint campaigns. Their wilderness homes are far from any external borders of the empire, and their warriors routinely march far from home, to the eastern fringes of Dyria and Hana, where they face threats from , or even the northern edge of , to stand against beings from . On other occasions, they have gone farther afield. Soldiers from House Petrakis accompanied a larger force from House Zebdel to aid in its invasion of the which resulted in it seizing control of the Duchy of Greenwood.
Holdings
The largest settlement in the County of Issa is at the castle of Siris. It would qualify as a large village by the standards of most in the empire. Issa is geographically large and sparsely populated, with settlements built up along the banks of the few minor rivers that flow through the region, availing of what fertile land there is. A significant number of people in Issa are hunters and trappers and it is from their number that House Petrakis draws its soldiers.
Current Events
Issa is at peace and, for all the martial inclinations of House Petrakis, it appears quite content for it to remain that way. Its military expeditions invariably go far afield. It rarely takes many soldiers anywhere - not least because it simply does not have the wealth to support major expeditions - but those who it does take are typically able skirmishers and possess ample woodcraft.
House Aetos is trying to recover from its long period of misrule. House Petrakis does not necessarily oppose this, but has grown accustomed to its ability to act as it likes while adhering to the letter of its vassalage agreements. It is understood by both sides that there is little that House Aetos can do to force change - not on Petrakis nor on any vassal - in the wake of its own internal chaos, and so any changes are likely to come about by way of diplomacy, if they happen at all.