Galactic Renaissance | GalacticRenaissance / The History of House Creoni browse

The Creoni believe themselves to be the descendants of Creon, Regent and later King of Thebes, who was uncle to Oedipus and Antigone. That line draws its heritage from Cadmus, the mythological hero who slew the dragon of Ares and took its teeth, which magically grew into soldiers. (Incidentally, the king of Corinth , whose daughter Glauce wed Jason of the Argonauts, the final owner of those teeth, was also named Creon.) They are a proud House, firm believers in discipline and wisdom, and known for aggression and ambition. Whatever the truth of their genealogy, they are certainly an ancient family who take their traditions and honour very seriously. Unlike perhaps any other Aquilan House, they were not part of Niklaus Aquila's original founding, but are instead a relatively late addition to the politics of Aquila . Once, they were a powerful aristocratic family on the massive industrial space stations around the volatile star Eta Carinae, one of the galaxy's most unique stars. Their fortune was made from the industries and unique technological developments that arose in this sector of space, but along with such fortunes came enemies, and it was one of those rival families, the Sothos, that eventually toppled the Creoni and sent them fleeing in disgrace from Eta Carinae.

The patriarch of the House, Maximilian, was a hard-nosed and ruthless businessman, and his sons and daughters were raised in his mould. However, even with such ambition and prowess at their disposal, the fact remained that as a family, they were hunted by extremely powerful enemies, who had the backing and tacit permission of the Imperium. As a place to hide, lick their wounds and slowly build their family once more, Maximilian chose Aquila , a backwater world largely ignored by the Imperium; the last place anyone would choose to look for them. Arriving on Aquila in 3102, Maximilian reluctantly turned the Creoni vessels over to the Lasses, and were in return allowed to settle on Aquila .

They used what meagre funds they had left to buy shares in a few businesses, not as stocks or bonds, but rather as glorified moneylending, helping struggling businessmen who had fallen out of favour with their Lords and Houses to make their quotas and stay afloat in the corrupt and decadent business system of Aquila . Maximilian made sure to diversify, acquiring contacts and businesses in many fields, spanning the strict boundaries of the Aquilan system, but he soon realised that this could not persist as a means of gaining influence, not here in the semicommunist economic climate of Aquila. Only nobility would do, and so he chose a target, one that the Creoni could replace.

The House of de Mur had maintained a quiet existence throughout the Interregnum and all the conflicts that had characterised it, making neither friends nor enemies, and so they were unprepared for the sudden attack from an unexpected quarter. It started with thievery, their workplaces and offices the targets for sudden raids, some brazen, involving armed men and terrifying holdups, others stealthy and secretive. With their own watch and armed forces overstretched, Lord Christopher de Mur sent to the capital for assistance, but the messengers were shot, the pigeons poisoned. Even if they had gotten through, this was 3120, one of the most volatile years of the turbulent Carlysle dynasty, and it would have been unlikely that any of the succession of Dukes that ascended and were killed that year would have been able to assist. Desperate, Christopher locked down Torre in martial law, but his troops were constantly harassed in terrorist-like actions, and eventually he responded to Maximilian Creoni's offer of a parley.

This was a mistake. Close to five hundred years of comfortable tradition on Aquila , coupled with two hundred years of backward technology, had made them complacent and narrow-minded. At the parley, a few common herbs and kitchen chemicals, combined and brewed in a fashion that Aquilans had not learned in the past half millennium, made a potent poison that the de Murs could not detect. Simultaneously, the dispossessed, the criminals, and those who had simply fallen out of favour with the House rose up in rebellion, and with the Lord of the House, his sons and advisors all dead, Torre quickly fell to the Creoni. Within a matter of months, Maximilian had turned things upside down, removing those in power, those who had had the ear and favour of the de Murs, and replacing them with those who had supported him, almost invariably those who had fallen out of favour and thus lost any means of advancement in the rigid hierarchy of Aquila . Two months later, he sent word to the capital and to the rest of the Houses on Aquila , informing them of the marriage of Lady Angelica de Mur, the only surviving daughter, and his middle son, the newly-titled Lord Haemon Creoni. He also stated that due to the unfortunate circumstances that had befallen the House of de Mur, they were no longer deemed viable enough to survive in their present state, and would therefore be absorbed into Aquila's newest House, the Creonis.

There was hue and cry, of course, and voices of dissent raised all over Aquila . But Maximilian had been right; by presenting a fait accompli to the chaotic political structure of Aquila, both the Duke and the Lords would much rather continue with dealings much as before, particularly if they wanted any construction or engineering projects to go ahead or continue, given the monopolistic structure of Aquila's economy. And so in time the cries of dissent muted to grumbles, and then, as the Creonis made all efforts to placate both the populace of Torre and the businesses of other Houses, there came a grudging acceptance. The Creoni took the portfolio of construction and engineering from the de Mur, and there is a distinct difference in those older buildings, made before the coup, and those built under Creoni architects. Creoni architecture is very Gothic in design, full of sweeping arches, gargoyles, and powerful stone construction. Whether it is superior to its predecessors is largely a matter of taste, but four hundred years is a long time, and many of Aquila's buildings, particularly outside the very centre of the capital, have at the very least been revamped if not rebuilt completely in that time.

Today, life in Torre, a large distrada out on the far west of colonised Aquila, set hard against the Nova Appenines mountains, is much better than in many places on Aquila. The Creonis govern with enlightenment, doing their best to ensure that Torre is governed as a meritocracy. For instance, the Creonis, never a large family, make a practice of adopting new members into the house as a reward for great services and merit. Only the Lord of the House may bestow such, and the new adoptee is considered the youngest sibling of the Lord from that point on. The Lady Jocasta, adopted aunt of the current Lord, entered the family in this fashion - she was the wife of the Captain of the loyal Creoni guardsmen, who gave his life to save that of his Lord in an assassination attempt. As a posthumous gesture of gratitude, his wife and young daughter were adopted into the Creonis. Many of the traditions and social stigmas that characterise much of Aquila , such as gender-based bias in certain professions and other social constraints, are not welcome in Torre, and not considered by the Creonis, a fact which makes them the focus of constant whispered gossip. Still, the Creonis expend much of their fortune on maintaining a high quality of life in Torre, even going so far as to institute welfare and work plans for the destitute and poor, meaning that many who cannot find work anywhere else in Aquila, for whatever reason, gravitate to Torre. Torre's population is thus quite large, if mostly poor, and though every effort is made to keep them in jobs and fed, there are many social difficulties from time to time, including a high crime rate.

The Gate, the Creoni residence in Aquila

There are still many traditionalists who see the Creoni as interlopers, foreigners to Aquila with strange ways that are 'just not the way things are done'. Certainly it is true that although they comport themselves scrupulously and honourably in all matters of politics and business (well, since the days of Maximilian, anyway), they also have a history of tacit rebellion against the status quo, which sometimes culminates in unfortunate incidents. In 3181, Michael Creoni, a nephew of the Lord at that time, and his sister Joanna were returning to Aquila from their studies offworld. Joanna had developed a debilitating kidney ailment and required constant medication as well as advanced biogenetic therapy to maintain a normal life, but the Lasse inspections at the spaceport refused to allow either her drugs or the therapeutic machines to enter Aquila . Despite all efforts, the law remained the law, and Michael was shot and killed as he attempted to smuggle them through anyway. The Lasses, evidently irritated at the Creoni outrage, refused to allow Joanna to leave Aquila via the spaceport, despite the worsening of her condition, and she died a month later. In 3349, young Phaedra Creoni, a brilliant biochemist, was imprisoned on charges of violating Aquilan trade practices. She claimed she had developed through her research a method of treating Aquilan native wood to make it not only safe to burn and build with, but also far stronger, straighter, and more durable than any of the introduced Terran species. The Windhavens, who were one of the more favoured Houses under Atropos I due to their vocal dissatisfaction with the previous Carlysles, were understandably angered at this potential threat to their lucrative monopoly, and thus it was not long before her arrest and imprisonment. In prison, she continued to appeal against her incarceration, since it was without trial, and continued her work. However, all of her notes and papers were stolen and destroyed, and it was not long after that that Phaedra apparently suicided in custody in highly dubious circumstances.

During the recent coup attempt, the late Lord Tryon Creoni surprised everyone by refusing to support the coup. It was well known that he was no friend or supporter of Atropos, but when the Bahlmises kidnapped him and made a naked grab for the Coronet, the borders of Torre were closed to Bahlmis merchants, even despite the hardship that this placed Torre under. The bans were lifted after the coup ended, but the ubiquitous Bahlmis traders still receive a frosty reception in Torre. Notably, however, no troops or other tangible support was sent to assist the Duke, indicating that the Creoni's position was one of tacit support alone.