Star Houses

NOBLES: The *Houses

*No.*	Card	Star House	Rival House	Dukedom/ Directorate
Clearly these names are a mere passing fancy and, whilst D/Ms are invited to work out their deeper meaning, more importantly should devise their own, in keeping with the nature of their campaign. Especially one with a cultural or literary theme...
I	The Magician	Marx	Kennedy	Polaris
II	The High Priestess	Albion	Eire	Ursa
*III*	The Empress	Mao	Jiang	Hercules
IV	The Emperor	Lenin	Romanov	Aries
V	The Heirophant	Windsor	Benn	Taurus
VI	The Lovers	Lian	Hua	Gemini
*VII*	The Chariot	Bea	Boe	Cancer
*VIII*	Justice	Nassah	Rosq	Libra
IX	The Hermit			Virgo
X	Wheel of Fortune	Morgan	Stanley	Pegasus
XI	Strength			Leo
*XII*	The Hanged Man		Murdoch	Centaurus
*XIII*	Death			Scorpio
*XIV*	Temperance			Sagittarius
XV	The Devil	Rothschild		Capricorn
*XVI*	The Tower			Eridanus
*XVII*	The Star			Aquarius
*XVIII*	The Moon			Pisces
*XIX*	The Sun			Argo
XX	Judgement			Crux
*XXI*	The World			(Emperor/TC)
O	The FOOL

Noble Families or Meritocratic Cartels.
The seven Ancient Houses , seven Major Houses and seven Houses Minor.

Hard working aristocrats keeping the Empire a viable and healthy society through charitable works and noblese oblige? Or sponging parasites living of the broken backs of their planetary peasants...
Or in a 'Meritocracy' privately owned Cartels whose (over)extended families have more power and wealth than they deserve.

Either way the nature of the *Houses will be highly dependant on the nature of the D/M's campaign. An Imperial setting where various monopolies and patents are bestowed on the whim of the Emperor... Or a Federation Council effectively doing just the same. Or a mixture of the two. Or neither where socialist soviets of sophonts have transformed the Kosmos into a Workers' Paradise!

Failing a true egalitarian society: total anarchy! The table (Ro.) is more for guidance than anything else has been divided into sevens:

The first seven are the Ancient Houses that claim to predate the first Diaspora and rich enough to own relics made on Old Earth; the true 'aristocracy' with origins lost in the mists of pre-interstellar history.
Some claim that their origins are more mundane...

At the other end of the aristocratic spectrum the seven Houses Minor: gauche enough to boast of 'owning' planets and, in the middle, (at least) seven Houses In-betweener: extended family owned: business cartels, finance houses, industrial monopolies,... with business links and intrigues across megaparsecs.

Each *House is more than just a hyper-plutocratic family. There will be vast estates spanning entire solar systems; shipping companies; industrial complexes; private armies;...

Dukedoms and Directorates
In Solar Centric setting, especially one depending on 'jump routes' or arms of communication, the Ma A can be used to assign the 20 Star Vector Sectors (Super-Constellations). In an Imperial setting: Dukedoms or Directorates in a corporate controlled Federation.
Earls (Presidents) will control a single Vector (Constellation) whose importance is ranked by the depth of the jump route. The further the penetration into (Un) Known Space the greater the conic volume and the more numerous the stars and planets.
These System Fiefs will be the purview of the Barons (Presidents). Their relatives (Managers!) Counts, Viscounts, Marquiese,... holding sway over Moons, Asteroids and Continents; Industrial facilities and lesser financial institutions.
XXI The World(s) are reserved for the private and valuable domains of the Emperor (or Empress) /the TerraCorp ChairPerson (Top Cat!)

Whatever their position in life, the AA will find themselves owing fealty, or lip service, to at least one Noble House. (Whilst secretly plotting with their rival!)