Burgunn Imperial Council

The Burgunn Imperial Council (also known as the Imperial Council, High Council, The Council and High Command) is effectively the ruling body of the Empire. While the Empire has an Emperor who can ultimately make any laws or decisions he chooses, the Council serves as both an advisory board and a balance point to the Emperor. The Council is more than capable of ousting a poor Emperor as well as simply slowing down the enforcement of edicts so that they may as well not exist, so going against the Council is a mistake only the worst of Emperors makes.

Supposedly the Council is made up of the most distinguished of the Imperial Congress, although in practice the High Seats of the twelve strongest houses (commonly referred to as "The Twelve" or the "High Houses") are virtually always the members.

The Emperor serves for life, although this life is typically cut short if the Emperor makes poor decisions. When appointed by the Council, the Emperor is considered no longer a member of his House, although decisions still tend to favor his former House's causes and the House isn't quiet about the fact that the Emperor came from their lineage.

Succession can sometimes cause a war, although this is comparatively rare. Generally the decision of appointing the new Emperor is left to the Council, some of whom don't always survive the proceedings. The current Emperor is Hucian D'Lahk, who has been serving as Emperor for the last five years.

D'Lahk is the third consecutive member of his House to serve as the Emperor, and the D'Lahk house is the only one to ever have three Emperors in a row come from it. The first, Uliar D'Lahk, died a bloody death during a Council meeting, and rumor has it that his successor Nulthik D'Lahk was the one who delivered the killing blow. Nulthik D'Lahk, one of the more popular Emperors in recent history, died of after fifty years of service due to complications from a disease contracted in childhood. Hucian D'Lahk, although less people-friendly than his predecessor, is considered a good empire and under his leadership the Empire has gained an additional fifty planets - considered a good gain in such a short period of time.

The other houses who make up the Council are as follows:

D'Lahk

House D'Lahk is one of the most honored of the Burgunn Houses. The House has absorbed many smaller houses in its time, which is partially why the House has had so many Emperors come from its ranks.

Organized and wealthy, the House is also one of the major military forces in the known universe. Almost all members of this house who are physically capable enough become warriors or soldiers, and spies and mystics are rare even compared to other Burgunn. Even Engineers are fairly uncommon, although the House has no disrespect towards people who pursue that occupation. Amongst the Engineers, most are still "combat engineers" and enter the battlefield alongside the more conventional combat classes.

Klarth D'Lahk is the current High Seat of House D'Lahk. He is arguably one of the best-known warriors in the Empire, being one of the few High Seats who is actively campaigning rather than retiring from the battlefield to manage his House. Although younger than most of the other Council members, he is highly respected by even the veterans of the Empire for his bravery and skill in combat. He is too young to be considered in line for succession if Hucian dies, although in another fifteen years he would be considered a serious contender.

T'Yagh

House T'Yagh is considered the second ranked House in the Empire. Like D'Lahk, they are a considerable military force in their own right. T'Yagh also has the fewest mystics of any house, and discourages it to the point that they don't allow mystics (even Burgunn) to join their house and most of the mystics in their house either disappear or end up joining other houses.

More Imperial Guardsmen come from T'Yagh than any other House, and the House actively recruits and trains its members for involvement in the Guard. Most of the House is soldiers, although warriors are also extremely common. Engineers and Spies are uncommon but exist, and usually fulfill specialist roles within the House. Like many other Houses, T'Yagh frowns on things like assassination, but spies are highly valued for both intelligence and recon roles.

Selena T'Yagh is the current High Seat of her house. Female High Council members are fairly rare and generally considered token members, but even D'Lahk and R'Teyt are forced to acknowledge her credentials. Selena is a hardened veteran who has served in hundreds of battles in dozens of campaigns, although currently she is semi-retired due to several major injuries suffered in battle. If the Emperor died today, T'Yagh would most likely become his successor and be the first Empress in the history of the Empire. Her primary competitor would be R'Teyt, although despite this the two Houses get along better than most since they both fulfill compatible roles in the Imperial army. Most of her injuries could have been healed by a competent Musician, but she refused to be healed by "mystic scum" and the injuries couldn't be treated by conventional medicine in time to be fully effective. Some Burgunn "purists" have tried to assassinate her in the past (causing some of the permanent injuries as well) so she wouldn't be able to take on the throne (many believe a woman isn't capable of doing the job) but she has managed to survive every single attack - frequently by taking on the would-be assassins herself in combat. In the last attack she held off no less than ten of them by herself until her bodyguards could arrive and by the time they got there only four were left standing.

R'Teyt

The third ranked House in the Empire is R'Teyt. Although the members of House R'Teyt are usually less skilled as foot troops than some of the other houses, R'Teyt trains some of the most effective armored cavalry units anywhere. Members of House R'Teyt can be found in almost every major engagement the Empire enters, providing everything from heavy hitting tanks to transport vehicles.

This is not to say that the members of R'Teyt are incapable of fighting, most of the members of the House recieve standard training that goes above that provided in most other races. The bulk of the House are soldiers, most specializing in the heavy weapons mounted on armored vehicles. Female Burgunn typically fly smaller more agile craft like fighters and assault hovercraft because of their faster reflexes, while the male Burgunn usually drive the heavier hitting vehicles like tanks and bombers. Most of the non-soldiers are Engineers, specializing in armory and vehicle repair, with most of the remainder specializing in various aspects of weapon design.

The current High Seat of R'Teyt is Armond R'Teyt. Among the rest of the Council, his only real ally is T'Yagh - the two of them have planned several joint missions over the years and both are comfortable with the others' command style. Due to the political nature of their positions, R'Teyt keeps T'Yagh at arm's length; he knows he would probably win the succession if it came down to it, but he doesn't want to take any chances. Surprisingly, he's not the one responsible for the assassination attempts on T'Yagh and was actually responsible for stopping one of them. R'Teyt is also semi-retired from military life due to his increasing age, although the old man is still capable of leading an assault if necessary. R'Teyt resembles nothing more than a giant bear, and rumor has it that the veteran warrior honed his skill in bar brawls when he was younger.

Y'Piys

Compared to most of the other houses, Y'Piys has a low concentration of combat personnel. The vast majority of the house are Engineers, and Y'Piys has the rightful reputation for being the premier weapons designers of the universe.

Y'Piys is the primary distributor of weapons to the other Houses, and lesser grade weapons are sold to military and adventurers all over the galaxy. Although the House does maintain a sizable military, it usually manages conflicts by allying with other houses and providing higher grades weapons to the houses who do the actual fighting. Economically, the house is almost as strong as P'Muzl, and can afford to hire other Houses or mercenaries when it needs to do battle. The troops that Y'Piys does utilize tend to be specialists, generally assigned to attack specific targets while other forces deal with the bulk of the opposing threats.

The House is lead by Jaxis Y'Piys, the chemist who designed the original biometrics system commonly found on smaller weapons. Although less physically imposing than many of his contemporaries, many people consider him to be one of the most dangerous. Even his regular clothing is embedded with augments and he has several specialized weapons on his person at any given point in time. As with most of the other High Seats, Jaxis has thwarted a number of attempts on his life, most notably three years ago when an assassin successfully managed to kill him. Upon his death a biometric trigger activated, causing a low level forcefield to surround him while another device detonated. The resulting explosion destroyed everything within a hundred meters, killing the assassin instantly. A third device activated from inside the forcefield, activating a mechanism that repaired his injuries and brought him back to consciousness. Perhaps as a result of all the chemicals he has ingested over the years, he is extremely eccentric and has almost an obsession with weapon design - the bigger the explosions and devastation it causes the more he likes it. This isn't to be confused with bloodlust - although he takes as much pride in a successful battle as any other Burgunn he doesn't have any active desire to hurt people needlessly.

P'Muzl

Arguably one of the best balanced Houses in the Empire, House P'Muzl is also the most economically stable. More worlds are controlled by P'Muzl than any other House, and the House uses these resources in an attempt to get more.

P'Muzl rarely gets involved in civil disputes with other Houses, although they frequently involve themselves in conflicts involving other houses by selling resources to both sides. There are also rumors of shadier dealings where the House sold resources to other factions fighting against the Empire, but so far these haven't been able to be proven.

Kindrar P'Muzl is the High Seat of P'Muzl. Unlike most of the other High Seats, it is unlikely that he will ever be in a position to become Emperor due to his comparatively minimal experience in combat. Most of the other High Seats see P'Muzl as important for the health of the Empire but not a worthy contemporary, he is mostly tolerated simply because they all have had to rely on his supplies at some point or another. He is much less imposing than many of them, but is much quicker on his feet than most of them in debate. His counsel is taken by Emperor D'Lahk on economic matters but completely ignored in other things, although he is used for diplomatic missions to other places - particularly the Rinn and Furry Empires.

S'Cial

While most of the Burgunn Houses are relatively open and straightforward in day-to-day life, this is not true of House S'Cial. Although every House has its secrets, House S'Cial has more than most and very seldom lets anyone know what goes on behind their walls. Few of the other Burgunn Houses do more than tolerate them, although they are considerably better tolerated than House J'Mynl.

S'Cial has more spies than any other House, and is one of the few Houses that actively train in the arts of Assassination and Burglary. Advanced specialists tend towards Imperial Intelligence, and due to their semi-trusted state (as opposed to J'Mynl) along with the fact that the head of their house is rumored to be the Headmaster of Imperial Intelligence more members of House S'Cial are in Imperial Intelligence than any other House. It is also rumored that members of S'Cial were involved in most of the assassination plots against other High Seats, but this has not been proven and is usually blamed on J'Mynl.

Malandrar S'Cial is the High Seat of House S'Cial, as well as being rumored to be the head of Burgunn Intelligence. People truly familiar with the organization dispute this, arguing that if he were truly running it he'd be doing a better job of hiding it, others argue that his planning is so thorough the rumors are there simply to displace theories that it's correct. Regardless, S'Cial embodies everything about his house - he is secretive, nondescript and is careful not to draw too much attention to his House. Equally, he tries to draw enough attention that the lack of attention isn't suspicious, and so far he has been very successful in keeping his House exactly where he wants it. Although he is an extremely gifted politician and knows where all the other Houses' skeletons are buried, he has minimal chance of becoming the next Emperor because they all feel that he's not as strong as the other candidates. However, it is very unlikely that a candidate he doesn't support will ascend to the throne.

F'Duva

Although infiltrating the inner sanctums of any House is dangerous, going into the depths of House F'Duva is dangerous for a completely different reason. F'Duva is a well known and oft-lamented House of Engineers, who have both created some of the most important devices in Burgunn history and have been responsible for some of the greatest disasters to befall the Empire. Many of their field tested devices fail to work, or worse yet manage to destroy the things they're supposed to help, so many Burgunn think twice before taking a new F'Duva device into the field.

F'Duva has arguably the best engineers in the Empire, although many of them lead a distracted life, often getting sidetracked while working and moving on to other half-finished projects as they get inspired. Frequently, devices left alone will be completed by other Engineers who don't always know what the purpose of the original device was, leading to experiments that frequently go awry. Rumor has it that a F'Duva Chemist invented the Juice line of chemicals by combining a performance enhancer she was working on with a poison remnant left behind by another Chemist. The only thing that keeps the House in the Council is that they also frequently provide key creations, such as the devices used to interface with the Pathways (jointly developed with G'Nylt).

The High Seat of House F'Duva is Jilnar F'Duva. Typical of his House, he has personally developed several key inventions for the Empire (Jump Packs are rumored to be at least partially his creation) as well as having several disasters under his belt (larger experiments in teleportation were responsible for teleporting a large prison ship into an alternate dimension where it was torn apart with few survivors). As with many of the less combatatively skilled High Seats, he is of minimal chances to ascend to the throne, although he has been on the High Council long enough to make it a possibility.

G'Nylt

Rare amongst the Burgunn is House G'Nylt, one of only two Houses who openly welcome Mystics. Although most other houses maintain small groups of Mystics, particularly healers, G'Nylt is unique in that it actively seeks to increase Mystic knowledge. Although like the other Houses it publicly denies the very existence of Magic, the reality of the situation is that as long as a person using Magic keeps their head down, the House will either leave them alone or (more likely) try to recruit and/or use them.

Representatives of House G'Nylt can be found almost everywhere in the Empire, as they serve as the primary source for Gatekeepers and teachers across the entire Empire. Few of the other Houses have even a fraction of their knowledge, so they are commonly hired by other Houses to teach science, math, history and languages. Most Gatekeepers are of House G'Nylt, the common excuse being that they are the only ones with the patience for it but those who know the truth know that it is G'Nylt's proficiency in Magic that allows them to be manipulate the Pathways.

Rumor says House G'Nylt maintains a massive library on one of their moons, but if this is true it is a closely guarded secret. If the rumor is true, this library is the largest in the known universe and rivals even the Technoid Mainframe in terms of raw information. Supposedly this library also contains copies of virtually every magic spell in existence, along with extensive tomes full of supporting information such as astrological charts and component research studies.

Tarquin G'Nylt is the High Seat of House G'Nylt. Typical of his House he is an impressive Mystic, and while he won't publicly admit it he has extensive abilities in Psionics Magic as well. Recently he has begun learning Projection, which was publicly discovered when a would-be assassin was pinned to the wall before being torn apart with psychic energy. Tarquin is extremely blunt, almost to the point of being rude, and tolerates very little in the way of incompetence. His presence on the Imperial Council is an annoyance to many, but few enough are willing to argue with him. He typically wears robes or ceremonial armor, although the magic rituals in place on him provide more protection than most technological armor could provide. Strangely enough, while G'Nylt and K'Lucx seem like natural allies the two rarely agree on anything.

J'Mynl

Every race has their black sheep. For the Burgunn, the black sheep is House J'Mynl. What most Burgunn don't seem to know is how this House of alleged pirates has the rank it does. Rumor says that Karahs J'Mynl has some substantial blackmail on Emperor D'Lahk, although how or what it is has so far been a mystery. Most of the other Houses refuse to have dealings with J'Mynl, referring to them with words like "Honorless" and "Pirate Scum".

J'Mynl has a fairly large area of influence, although anyone who can avoid doing business with them does so. Shipping to and from worlds held by the House is considered extremely dangerous, with constant raids from spacefaring pirates. The House officially denies any connection with the pirates, but it is fairly well known that the pirates are actually sponsored by House J'Mynl. Although the House produces some of the most skilled first strike and raiding troops in the Empire, few other Houses will work with J'Mynl troops out of a concern that they might switch sides in the middle of the fight... It's happened before and no one would be surprised if it happened again.

The High Seat of House J'Mynl is Karahs J'Mynl. Prior to meeting him in person one would normally picture an ill-mannered scoundrel, but most are surprised to find that Karahs is actually charming, well-dressed, highly educated and very intelligent. Among the High Council, he is one of the best swordsmen although he lacks the formal military experience of many of the other Council members. Like most high ranking Burgunn a fair number of assassination attempts have happened to him, although fewer than one might expect. This is reputed to be because J'Mynl is usually the one hiring the assassins and wouldn't be interested in killing their own leader.

H'Yuli

While most Houses try to gain influence through military might, H'Yuli takes a different approach. Although the House is among the smallest in terms of planets under their control, the small House has a disproportionately large amount of the money in the Empire. House H'Yuli is known throughout the universe as a strong trading and merchant organization, and although their reputation - like all Burgunn - is somewhat cutthroat, they are known for having fair bargains and keeping their word (to do any less would be dishonorable). If a H'Yuli trader says a weapon is in "pristine condition", it is. Often times a large deal will go down without the other party even verifying the cash paid out on the deal, knowing that no member of House H'Yuli would rip them off else they would face very harsh penalties with the Head of their House.

To protect the quality of service that their customers are used to associating with, any member of the House who is suspected of ripping off a client is thoroughly investigated and if found guilty the punishments are often hundreds of times more severe (and public) than a similar crime occuring within another House. Even more than most other Burgunn, the H'Yuli recognize the importance of the Honor of their House and go to great lengths to protect it.

Along with producing skilled traders, the House also produces some of the finest ship pilots in the universe. Many of their ships have to cross vast areas through territories infested with pirates, so space warfare is a highly developed skill in the House. While not nearing the skill of House R'Teyt in actual warfare and combat tactics, they are far superior in both evasive and skirmish techniques. Typically cargo ships will have a small escort, this escort is all that stands between a profitable run and death in deep space.

Kuriasu H'Yuli is the High Seat of House H'Yuli. Her lack of combat experience means that there is virtually no chance of her ever becoming Emperor, and while she has had some assassination attempts in her past they have been reasonably rare. While a few have tried to imply that this is because she is actually the one behind the attempts, little serious credence is given to this theory. Most believe it is simply because as a woman and a non-warrior she has little enough chance at the throne anyways. She is rarely consulted in matters of war outside of what is considered politeness due her rank, although her opinion is frequently sought after in areas of logistics, finance and internal security. Diplomatic missions are also often assigned to either her House or G'Nylt, and the two work well enough together that joint diplomatic missions are somewhat common. Like most of her House, she is a shrewd bargainer and is frequently at the forefront of any Imperial negotiations.

G'Tasz

In all successful societies, there must exist several different levels of worker. Although the more militant Houses and the wealthier ones are the ones with the notoriety, none of them would be able to function without the raw resources provided by the lesser known Houses. The highest ranked among them is House G'Tasz.

Either in spite of or because of their somewhat disreputable reputation, House G'Tasz controls almost a hundred planets and has created an extensive network of resource collection. The vast majority of minerals and precious metals used by the empire are harvested by House G'Tasz and sold to the other Houses to be used for their projects.

Along with almost a hundred actively populated worlds, House G'Tasz owns the shells of almost another hundred. These hundred planets were so agressively forested, mined and abused that they have no natural resources to speak of and lack the ability to sustain any form of life. Like they do with their planets, the House tends to use anything they come in contact with until there is nothing of value left, this includes other races and even other Burgunn. This has led other groups to be wary when dealing with House G'Tasz, although there is no open hostility.

House G'Tasz is led by Acklarn G'Tasz. Like many in his house, he is smaller in stature than most other Burgunn. Scientists of House G'Nylt have theorized that since they spend much of their time underground and inside cramped quarters they are adapting by becoming smaller. Acklarn G'Tasz is barely considered among the Council, and is frequently ignored by the other members. Most of the Council feels uncomfortable around him, and he has very few allies within the Empire.

K'Lucx

House K'Lucx barely ranks among the highest twelve Imperial Houses. Successive generations of High Seats have managed to maintain the tenuous grasp the House has on the Council seat, mostly due to skillful negotiation and fortunate timing. Unlike most other Houses, K'Lucx manages a wide variety of operations including military, trade and research into mystical areas.

House K'Lucx is one of the smallest Houses represented within the High Council. Many of the House's opponents condemn the open allowance of Mystics within the House, and aside from House G'Nylt House K'Lucx has a higher population of Mystics than any other House. The House also has had a number of civil wars in recent history, the latest one causing both the death of the former High Seat and a deal with a local Onarl tribe that has secured K'Lucx's position within the Council for many years to come.

Parthos K'Lucx is the newest member of the High Council. His mother, Janaara K'Lucx, was murdered during the second war of succession on the planet Kassadi IV. Parthos K'Lucx has been on the High Council for less than two years now and no one knows exactly how to react to him yet. Unlike most other Burgunn, Parthos is far from reserved and prior to his succession to Imperial Consulate he was frequently found carousing in taverns. His prior position in the House was managing operations on Kassadi IV, where he developed both extensive mercenary contacts and refined his mystic skills. Among the Council he is one of the two who have abilities in True Magic, something which terrifies his counterparts.