House Aetos

House Aetos rules the Duchies of Malthini and Taras. Its head is Duchess Melissa Aetos.

History
House Aetos came to prominence in the mid-300s, when it took control of the Duchy of Malthini. In the wake of a civil war, House Aetos ruled the Realm of Dyria from 470 until 602, when Queen Areti Aetos was deposed in a palace coup orchestrated by no less than members of her own royal family in the wake of a bitter internal feud. Areti had begun a process of stripping nobility, including her own family, of titles, land, Crown positions and honourifics and centralising power in a bureaucracy wholly of her own choosing. Some observers quietly remarked that Areti's choice of government was on the whole rather sound, whereas the royal family at the time had not, by and large, made for competent administrators - there were a few exceptions. Rather than see their fortunes vanish entirely, but requiring substantial support from elsewhere in the realm to hold on to anything at all, the other members of House Aetos sought the aid of Duke Aeson Kournis, the late father of Queen Sophia Kournis. A coalition of nobility issued an ultimatum to Areti, who was forced to abdicate. The Imperial Crown looked on, concerned that Dyria might be entirely destabilised, but with little grounds under which it could step in. It did not take sides. On Areti's abdication, the throne of Dyria passed to Elias Kournis.

Areti, exiled from Dyria, went first to Hadash, where she spent a while living in Jewel and visiting the royal court frequently, travelled beyond the borders of the empire. After some time spent wandering, she went firstly to the Kingdom of Wend, on the western edge of Elthos, and there she still resides. Imperial diplomats have reported that Areti acts as an adviser to King Albert Tindall.

After Areti's abdication, the position of head of house passed to her cousin, Phyllis, who proved to be a generally ineffectual ruler, content to bask in indolence, with little pushback from the rest of her family, and steadily eroded the house's power further. One of the few things that Phyllis did was exile much of Areti's former staff, from bureaucrats to military officers, from the duchies, leaving House Aetos bereft of anyone particularly competent or experienced, a void which was never quite filled, as anyone with talent sought greener pastures. Its bureaucracy has been tumbledown, its military ramshackle, and years of poor rule have led to Malthini and Taras being in poor shape indeed.

Phyllis died without an heir in late 629, and at this point, a younger generation within the house had coordinated to place one of their own number, Melissa, in power, with the backing of Aetos' vassals. This move bypassed Phyllis' younger siblings, Filippos, father of Melissa, and Eftychia, mother to Kimon and Theon. There has been a movement to revitalise the house and its ailing fortunes.

Holdings
House Aetos' seat of power is in the port city of Malthi, along the northeastern coast of the Encircled Sea. The Duchy of Malthini is some of the better land in Dyria. Although it still pales in comparison with the Emerald River floodplain or even the Adan Basin, the expansive plains along the coast are enough to make it self-sufficient. The house's recent decades of mismanagement have left Malthini ailing and the city of Malthi declining in relevance, with wealthy burghers having departed it for greener pastures elsewhere in Dyria. The city is in dire need of much overdue civil works projects.

House Aetos also holds the northern Duchy of Taras, a hilly and forested region along the border of The Commonwealth of Hana and Lonin. House Aetos' only direct holding in the duchy is a single castle, Hanan Watch, along one of the few roads that spans the region, in which it maintains a modest garrison and receives representations from locals. Hanan Watch is in a shoddy state of repair and recent subsidence of the hill below it left its curtain wall partially collapsed. Apart from that one castle, Taras is left primarily to vassal houses who owe fealty to House Aetos.

Current Events
Since the younger generation of House Aetos essentially seized power in the house, there has been a move to undo the past three decades' worth of poor rulership and mismanagement. There is still some bitterness about the matter within the house, and in the view of some, it was tantamount to being another coup. House Aetos enjoys the support of its vassals, for now, but exerts precious little control over them, even by the standards of the already often loosely-organised empire. Some progress has been made on remedying the more immediate problems in Malthi, but there is a very great deal more to do. Taras is often little thought of, being that it is mostly not directly administered by House Aetos.