House Sikorin

House Sikorin owns a swathe of land in northern Lonin. Its head is Boyar Sigitas Sikorin.

History
House Sikorin has been present in northern Lonin for a long time, although it is only known for sure that it came to prominence some time before the Second Greytide. The Greytides were appallingly destructive in Lonin, as the creatures that sometimes emerge from the Terror multiplied many times over. It is generally held that the First Greytide killed four in five of the people living in Lonin. By the time the Second Greytide came, though, people were better prepared. House Albalaski, the ruling house of the grand duchy, had established the fortress-city of Vilslev and the mighty Spire of Ice. House Sikorin is one of its earliest and most prominent vassals.

The millennium-old duty of House Sikorin is to ward against the perils of the Terror. In the event of a Greytide, its duty becomes to see the people of northern Lonin, in the vast region called the Expanse, safely to Vilslev. It has done so twice now. The tundra it calls home is scarcely enough for even basic subsistence, much less a substantial body of professional soldiers, and so House Sikorin has always received substantial subsidies from the Grand Duchy and beyond.

After the Second Greytide, House Sikorin welcomed the Knights Custodian to its home. The chapter of the Custodians in the Expanse is the largest in existence. Such was the might of the warriors of House Sikorin and the Custodians, indeed, that they took one of very few offensive actions rather than purely defensive ones during the Third Greytide. By most accounts though, the behaviour of that Greytide in Lonin was markedly different to the First and Second; the tide bypassed defences rather than assailing them, in many cases, moving southward with haste.

The centuries since the Third Greytide have been characterised by continued watchfulness. Since the 610s, the number and the danger of creatures and raiders emanating from the Terror has started to slowly increase.

In 629, Rasa Sikorin, aunt of Sigitas Sikorin and Voivode of the Expanse, led an expedition to the very fringes of the Terror which sought to discern more about the increase in incursions. She and the entire expedition, including a number of other Sikorins, vanished without a trace. They had been accompanied by soldiers from House Lindner, led by Count Gerhart Lindner, a friend of Rasa, and by Antanas Albalaski, husband of Grand Duchess Zaria Albalaski. They too vanished. The Albalaskis, Sikorins and Lindners conducted a search of the region, which was a perilous undertaking in itself, but found no trace whatsoever of the expedition.

The Sikorins elected Sigitas as their next leader, after both of Rasa's younger siblings, Marek and Jadwiga, Sigitas' mother, demurred when the house's assembly first offered the position to them. However, Sigitas did not yet have the military experience of his aunt and when a new voivode, or military commander, was needed for the Expanse, Sigitas' uncle Marek, was appointed by King Victor Vanzek, with the strong recommendation of House Albalaski. This creates an unusual situation for Sigitas, wherein his uncle is the final authority on military matters throughout the Expanse, whether it relates to House Sikorin, one of the other smaller noble houses in the region, or indeed the Knights Custodian, who generally defer to the voivode.

Holdings
House Sikorin owns a swathe of largely worthless tundra. Some people eke out a living in the land, hunting, and there have even been a few passable mining opportunities found in the area. For most though, supplies and funding come from elsewhere in the Commonwealth or empire.

Several fortresses are dotted across the Expanse. These are meant to serve as bases for soldiers to patrol from or to withstand attack by smaller forces from the Terror. They are not intended to stand in the event that another Greytide ever happens - in such circumstances, their defenders are to abandon them and move with all possible haste to Vilslev.

The largest of those fortresses is the castle of Voivode's Rest. The fortress accommodates not only soldiers of House Sikorin, but also the Knights Custodian. The Custodians patrol all across the Expanse, but its regional headquarters is in the castle. The place is known more generally as just the Rest. The substantial numbers of soldiers present there make it a popular spot for all sorts of people providing goods or services to the military.

While most of the Commonwealth is characterised by small noble houses owning pockets of land near that of larger ones, such small houses are quite few in number in the Expanse.

Current Events
House Sikorin is concerned by the increasing numbers of creatures and raiders coming from the Expanse. Rasa Sikorin is presumed dead; the force which travelled with her was substantial, and for it to vanish with no trace at all is cause for concern. The Sikorins continue about their duty all the same. While for many in the empire, a violent incursion into their lands would be alarming indeed, for the Sikorins, it is entirely expected, and should be dealt with with appropriate diligence.

The Sikorins maintain a significant presence at the imperial court. They are reliant on foreign funding to continue with their age-old mission, and it is their assessment that the best way to continue this is to always have a presence to remind people of what it is they do. The Terror is far from the minds of most in the empire, and other places have their own concerns, but House Sikorin remains able to find friends, including from both within the Commonwealth and beyond, not least of which is House Lindner.