User blog:Jadelady/Cordonia's Houses

This is totally a THEORY page because there are a lot of holes and I don't remember if the writers stated anything extra on blogs or tweets. Granted, I don't remember a lot about The Crown and The Flame series, but this is me trying to piece everything together from The Crown and The Flame series to The Royal Masquerade to Rules of Engagement / The Royal Romance and The Royal Heir series.

The Crown and The Flame
The Five Kingdoms are Abanthus, Bellmere, Ebrimel, Fydoria, and Stormholt.

The Royal Masquerade
The Great Noble Houses are Nevrakis, Beaumont, Fierro, Vescovi, and newest Aster/Everhart/Rosario.

The Royal Series
The Great Noble Houses are Nevrakis (Lythikos), Beaumont (Ramsford), Amaranth (Krona), Ebrim (Portavira), and Theron (Castelsarreillan).

We know from The Five Kingdoms, Abanthus eventually becomes contemporary Lythikos, Bellmere becomes Castelsarreillan, Ebrimel becomes Portavira, Fydoria becomes Krona, and Stormholt eventually becomes the Royal Palace and surrounding capital city region of Cordonia. But what about the Houses in The Royal Masquerade and where did Ramsford (and the Beaumonts) come from?

Theory
Because Barthelemy names Leon Stirling as an ancestor and we know he didn't have a kingdom of his own, I surmise that he may have had relatives - maybe a sister - who was bestowed the honor posthumous by Queen Kenna Rys and given land. I say "sister" because I'm guessing she was married to a Beaumont and so the House of Beaumont started, which then would make it the second oldest House in Cordonia (the oldest being the House of Nevrakis). Some land was probably portioned off from Bellmere and Stormholt (since on the map they are close to each other) and/or portioned off from Abanthus since they were the losing side in the war (and because Beaumont's sigil becomes the squid or kraken which was discovered in Lykos Bay).

Where did the other Houses go in The Royal Masquerade then? Only to be brought back by The Royal Series? The only thing I can think of is that they still existed but had lost their "Great House" status due to reasons such as selling off portions of land and other deals they made, and through the years, they acquired their "Great House" status again after reclaiming land and building their respective wealths.

Some time after the end of The Crown and The Flame but before the beginning of The Royal Masquerade, House Vescovi and House Fierro emerged. Judging by Damon Fierro's attitude, it feels like those Houses were not "new" but could have been Great Houses for generations at least.

Maybe like House Beaumont, House Vescovi's lands originated from Bellmere and Stormholt, and also included the Blackspine Mountains. I bring up the Blackspine Mountains because (1) it is possible that Crown Shield's magic (from his/her mother) originated there and (2) the Phoenix animal/symbol is associated with fire users from those mountains. The phoenix symbol is very reminiscent of the peacock, which becomes Vescovi's vigil and one of Maxwell Beaumont's obsessions. Later, when House Vescovi falls, House Beaumont absorbs their territory.

House Aster/Everhart/Rosario was probably a lesser noble House before the start of The Royal Masquerade. I only say this because Elise was Cranston Rhys's mistress. Technically, he could have had many mistresses -from peasants and commoners to aristocracy and nobility - but given the fact that he courted Elise (before he became the man who would try to assassinate his sister), it's reasonable that she, Zya, and Annalisa's parents were somewhere on the bottom rungs of the nobility ladder. As Annalisa mentioned, their family amassed fortune and she gained Kendra Rhys's favor in Court, which is only possible if she were of lesser nobility. From that and because Elise uses the same character model as Emmeline, I think House Aster/Everhart/Rosario gained some of Ebrimel's territory, diminishing House Ebrim's noble status in The Royal Masquerade. Years later though, House Aster/Everhart/Rosario would merge back with House Ebrim and House Ebrim would flourish again as a Great Noble House. In The Royal Romance, Book 1, Olivia points out that Penelope can track her lineage through six hundred years of royalty. Given that The Royal Romance series takes place around 2018, that would bring her lineage back to at least 1418 (The Crown and The Flame era) but does not count for the disappearance of the House in The Royal Masquerade.

This leaves House Fierro to have possibly gained lands from Fydoria, and like House Aster/Everhart/Rosario, this lessened House Amanth to a lesser Noble House in The Royal Masquerade only to regain their Great Noble House title years later when House Fierro falls and its lands are reabsorbed into other duchies.