House Corti

House Corti is one of the three largest houses of the Grand Republic of Thasen. Its current head is Senator Bianca Corti. House Corti makes its home in Gela.

History
House Corti, as with most houses in the Republic, was founded in the years after the Third Greytide, as people began to move back to the despoiled lands of Thasen. It was comprised of a merchant family who had escaped by ship from their home in the city of Gela, on the coast of the Sea of Elthos.

The old nobility of Gela were dead, killed to a person during the Greytide, which left the city devastated. Few, if any, from Gela had gone to Sanctuary, so people were left fleeing in the middle of the Greytide. Many of those who had fled had done so on House Corti's ships, which sailed across the southern coast to seek refuge, going west rather than east, believing the Thasund to be swarming with demons. They found port after port deserted or overrun. The first place where they came across a secure port was in Westelth, but there the isolationist Westelthians denied the refugees access to their ports. Instead, they made for Hadash, and were given safe harbour in Jewel. Although the Hadashi royal house of that time, Bennu, is long since vanished amid one of Hadash's episodes of civil strife, House Corti has always maintained strong ties with Hadashi merchants and has a long-time habit of looking beyond its own shores. The resentment of Westelth is deeply engrained in the Gelans, even centuries later.

After returning to the Gela after the Greytide, House Corti assumed a leading role, and a Corti has always been mayor of the city - the elections have not been contested in centuries. Gela joined the League of Thasen, a loose alliance and trading union, in the 100s, and House Corti was a key voice in the unification into the Grand Republic of Thasen in the mid-200s.

House Corti has been one of the three most powerful houses in the Republic since its founding. House Corti, House Damiani and House Lavini control so many votes in the senate between them that it is quite uncommon that one of them is not the leading house in the Republic, an arrangement which suits them all very well. House Corti was the dominant party for much of the early part of the 600s. However, it was ousted in the election of 619, two years after it took part in House Salfeld's campaign to seize the Duchy of Greenwood from the Realm of Intis. Many in the Republic are wary of it sponsoring such foreign adventurism, or otherwise publicly profess to prefer peaceful trade - it has not stopped such episodes over the years, but that was the most recent and the seizure of an entire duchy significant in scope. Houses Lavini and Damiani cooperated to place a Lavini as praesens in 619, and kept House Corti essentially shut out of the process for the ensuing decade. Matters mellowed from the late 620s onwards, and some of the usual competition has come back in.

House Corti has stood by its move. It has certainly profited from it, having secured twenty years of favourable trading arrangements with Greenwood, which is to expire in autumn of 637.

House Damiani won the election of 631 by a razor thin margin, based on personal ties more than policy - some matters are in flux, and everyone in the Republic knows it. Internally, it might be stable - or stagnant, depending on one's point of view - but for all that they desire peace, outside events have come uncomfortably close. The western part of the Republic, including the region of Gela, borders the Realm of Intis, and the expansion of the Dominion of Rin is an increasingly pressing concern. The expansion of Rin has seen it conquer a number of House Corti's long-time trading partners along the southern coast of Elthos.

Holdings
The city of Gela and its surrounds are essentially a personal possession of House Corti and ruled as such. A Corti has been mayor ever since the Third Greytide and elections have not been contested in centuries. Gela is the main port of entry for goods coming from beyond the empire which are bound for much of the southern Imperial Territories. House Corti's ships traverse the sea to western and southern Elthos, as well as Salthos. The land around Gela is of passable quality, but there is nothing intrinsic to it which generates wealth. Rather, the wealth of the region derives from commerce, which House Corti retains firm control over in the region.

Current Events
Perhaps the most pressing concern for House Corti is the Dominion of Rin. It has already conquered various small polities along the southern coast of Elthos to the west of the empire which House Corti has often traded with in the past. Besides the impact on its revenues - Rin does not make for a good trading partner - there is the very real prospect that Rin will conquer Intis, and then be right on the imperial border, close indeed to Gela.

Some worry about the prospect of civil war in the Realm of Hadash. While House Corti has nothing approaching a monopoly on the Hadashi trade, it still derives significant revenue from shipping grain across the Sea Between.