The Great Houses.

House of boneless limbs

The house of boneless limbs pursues the "Darker arts." Within this federation of sorcerers and academics, the act of necromancy is embraced, making up the bulk of their workforce. As a faction, they seek to unravel and catalog the mystery of the tangible and immaterial facets of the creation. They believe that new ideas flourish when scrutinized and disputed by their peers. They have begun to institute libraries and universities where they hope to disseminate erudition to coerce the people via the appropriation and monopolization of information. 

To this house, morality is a barrier deterring progress, and while the old ways are valuable, one should seek different venues to strengthen their community further. Their undead labor force is employed to keep the factories running and allow their engineers to keep their focus on the pursuit of technological development.

The University of Boneless Limbs is charged with the democratization of knowledge. They set up medical facilities, libraries, and universities across the providence. Additionally, they maintain the factories for the Verdant Dynasty as well as research goals. Their organization comprises alchemists, teachers, philosophers, engineers, doctors, and any intellectual pursuit they deem might benefit society. The broker rules the group, whose identity is shrouded in mystery and the subject of much debate and speculation even among their ranks. 

Their secondary function is to explore the natural world. Those not interested in the arcane may find sanctuary within their labs. Here they promote the sciences, alchemy, and engineering. Often the realm of magic and technology converge and benefit one another. Internally, there is healthy competition between the two sides. However, they both understand that each field is crucial in advancing their civilization.

The Eternal House.

The Eternal House was formerly considered a laughing stock within the titular badlands. The other noble houses regarded them as young and inconsequential—a family governed by a woman of ignoble birth. Their mistress, Samara Del'Fluent, stemmed from a lustrous line. However, due to originating from a distant world, this knowledge wasn't commonplace. The self-described lioness of the sands utilized their ignorance against them. 

The other families squabbled and warred with one another. Their sights were fixated on conquest and building up their militaries. Samara, on the other hand, pursued a different route. The once budding house positioned itself amongst the merchants. Their competition bled resources and capital while they stuffed their coffers. Wealth had become the catalyst by which they'd project their will—the Eternal House invested in spice and debauchery. The other nobles were foolish enough to stain their house's names to assuage their indulgent thirst for worldly pleasure.

Samara used their taint to blackmail many. Her coin lent with interest. The Eternal House sought to conquer them not with the sword but with crippling debt. Foolishly, they wore that yoke as with each golden coin amassed, her presence within their decision-making swelled. Soon, the once small faction cast a large and ubiquitous shadow. The lioness sank her teeth and claws into their jugulars. One by one, she absorbed the lesser houses. Their resources proved instrumental in cementing their name within the peoples' consciousness.

Those added were placed where their strengths lay. What started as a family focused on mercantile, now spread across many fields. Soon, her banners stood high, and once the white sands collapsed under the heft of its ineptitude, the lioness was ready to pounce. Samara offered those in debt the opportunity to wipe their ledgers clean. She used their avarice to pit the remaining competition against one another. By the time they realized her plan, it was already too late. 

The Eternal House now had a large military, exorbitant capital, and resources. Investments were made to ignite the furnace of industry and innovation. The desert became synonymous with her dynasty. Not a single facet of its people wasn't marked by her hand. The Eternal House wasn't content to rest on its laurels. The White Sands was under their control, but it wasn't enough. The mistress of the house deemed it unwise to have all their eggs in a single basket, especially one prone to delinquency.

The crown exchanged many hands. Sovereigns came and went along with other factions. And though the world might die and be reborn, the lioness always survived. Samara took her wealth and infiltrated foreign markets. The Verdant Dynasty, Fathomless Expanse, and Memoria became dependent on her business and investments. She rubbed shoulders with their leaders, forming partnerships that proved quite lucrative. A hedge so that if the desert should verify itself as doomed, she could reposition her house to weather such a fate.

Eventually, it came to pass. The White Sand Empire eroded due to its failed state. Samara had bled the province of its artifacts, books, gold, and intel. The Eternal House withdrew, bringing their armies, industry, and technology far north. They now stand as a beacon of progress and innovation. A message that even one of lowly upbringing could rise to the top as long as they were willing to sacrifice for it.

Their banners were raised high as the future appeared promising. A feat, while impressive, will mean nothing if they stomach complacency. The Eternal House remains a cartel specializing in producing and distributing vice, appealing to the masses' immoral inclinations, peddling the pleasures of the flesh as a means to enlarge their coffers, and advertising their brothels, drugs, alcohol, and casinos as a means to cast a further shadow across the realms. Their militarization has generated some alarm. However, they merely offer protective services to those under their business empire. ​Outside of the peddling of sin, they've recently begun cultivating crystals that they hawk to the Verdant Dynasty and barter this for leverage to gain a blind eye to their more controvertible affairs. 

These crystals are used for energy that powers their institutions and has drastically elevated their capital and political sway within the Fathomless Expanse. Samara deemed energy the future and seeks to secure her family's prosperity by being ahead of the curve. ​As a capitalist, she altered archaic customs while encouraging internal entrepreneurial endeavors with the expectation of rekindling the industry lost. Even recently developing golems. How these things were created and in such large numbers remains a mystery. The Eternal House base is a floating golden egg-like structure with rings orbiting around it. The facility was once the lamp of a jinn, now turned into a mobile platform for operations. The inside is vastly larger than the outside suggests. Some say it houses an entire city inside. 

The levitating fortress supplies energy to the trinity cities of the Fathomless Expanse. It secured their position in the region and the queen's ear. To the public, they are just another noble house, and their mistress is merely an assiduous entrepreneur. In actuality, she runs the entire system, and those visibly in charge are figureheads planted to obfuscate this fact.