House Heshbeh
House Heshbeh holds Heka Nome, including, the city of Pearlsedge. Its head is Sufet Kothar Heshbeh.
History
House Heshbeh is an ancient house, claiming to have existed since the mid ninth century BF, before even the First Greytide, in its home on the edge of the Pearl Sea, where merchant ships from the Cornucopian Realms arrive. Popular tradition holds that Pearlsedge survived each of the Greytides unscathed, though the stories of how vary so wildly, with various embellishments probably added over the intervening centuries, that there is no real way to pick out the actual truth. While many places have at least patchy written records, Pearlsedge is notable for its stark lack of any from before 103 AF. This mystifies and frustrates scholar and it has been a point of some annoyance for members of House Heshbeh themselves, with the making of complaints about the lack of writing about an ancient house such as theirs being a tradition in itself, in a roundabout way.
For all that, Pearlsedge has prospered over the centuries. Heka Nome has little else to recommend it, being arid grassland with a scant few animal herders using it. Pearlsedge, though, is a small but wildly prosperous city. Its port is both the largest on the Pearl Sea and the only one used by merchants coming from the Cornucopian Realms. Most unload their cargo there and convey it into the hands of Hadashi merchants in the city, who then sell the wares throughout Hadash and Elthos.
The stories surrounding Pearlsedge, combined with its comparatively remote position, have meant that even in the worst periods of turmoil in Hadash, it has not come under military threat. House Heshbeh has been a consistent advocate for whatever political position it views as being stable and is not shy about making this known. Its position was threatened by the since destroyed Royal House Anast and it threw its wealth behind House Rannal at that time. In more recent decades, House Heshbeh advocated for joining the empire, to give its merchants greater reach. They must still deal with a tangle of bureaucracy, but it is lessened compared with non-imperial traders seeking to do business in the empire.
Holdings
Heka Nome, within which is the city of Pearlsedge, is House Heshbeh's single holding. The nome is geographically expansive, with largely poor land occupied mostly by herders. Pearlsedge is the primary source of the house's wealth and power. It is not the only port along the Pearl Sea, but it is certainly the largest. It is the only one which merchants from the Cornucopian Realms will visit, a situation which has persisted for a long time indeed, despite efforts by other houses with coastal holdings to draw merchants towards their ports instead. Pearlsedge is a small city, with an almost absurdly prosperous populace. Even the poorest of people in the city have wealth to match well-to-do Elthosian burghers. This relative prosperity has one unusual quirk, in that household servants are uncommon compared with the rest of the empire, due in large part to the high costs of employing a local. There is a long-standing rule to prevent people from bringing others in from outside for purposes of domestic work. The nobility of House Heshbeh, for all their wealth, are markedly more likely than many in the empire to attend to day-to-day household tasks themselves.
Pearlsedge is sometimes used by vessels coming from the few minor polities along the southern coast of the Great Desert, away to the northeast. As the Hadashi do with anyone from that benighted place, the Pearlsedgers treat the folk of the Great Desert with a mix of sympathy and caution.
Current Events
The growing paranoia of King Misic Rannal is prominent in the minds of members of House Heshbeh. The house has undertaken to maintain the status quo as much as possible, but matters may reach a breaking point soon. Should the king's errant proclamations about the Cornucopian Realms become known beyond the palace, to the populace at large, there is a risk that they will make it to the ears of the Cornucopian merchants. House Heshbeh has been careful to control who enters Pearlsedge and to ensure they have no knowledge of what is happening. Few, if any, believe that a Hadashi would willingly risk the trading relationship, but the concern is more that gossip might spread. None in the house believe this can continue for much longer. The house has taken no public position on Misic - to engage in behaviour the paranoid king regards as treasonous could be ruinous.
The house has an ongoing interest in establishing ties across the empire by striking trading arrangements. The Cornucopian goods are typically readily portable - silk, porcelain and spices abound - compared with bulk goods, and the Pearlsedgers are happy to take similarly lightweight valuables as payment, so distance is little object. The primary risk to this trade is that numerous people in the empire feel that sending imperial wealth far beyond its borders in exchange for luxury items is a perilous proposition.