Chapter III. Great Houses of Albion
[] Chapter III. Great Houses of Albion []
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<> Section A : Roll of Houses
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* 2 Royal & Imperial Houses
* 42 Major Houses
* 16 High Houses
* 300 Minor Houses
[] Royal & Imperial Houses (2)
* 2 Foremost Ancient and Royal Houses - Pendragon, Emrys
[] Major Houses (42)
* 7 Utmost Ancient and Noble Houses - Black, Marshal, Mercer, Potter, Priest, Sage, Steward
*12 Most Ancient and Noble Houses - Bones, Bulstrode, Diggory, Greengrass, Levant, Longbottom, Malfoy, McGonagall, Ollivander, Prewett, Ptolemy, Weasley
*23 Ancient and Noble Houses - Abbott, Avery, Burke, Carrow, Crouch, Doge, Fawley, Flint, Fleamont, Goldstein, Parkinson, Lovegood, Lestrange, Macdougal, Macmillan, Nott, Valerius, Selwy, Shafiq, Travers, Wallace, Yaxley, Zabini
[] High Houses (16)
<> Knightly Houses - Pendragon Nine (9)
* Respectively Aged and Noble Houses - Lac [Lancelot, Gwen], Maris [Leon], Thomas [Elayn], Boleyn [Kay], Pellinore [Percival, Gwaine], Melodias [Tristan, Isolde], Galatine [Mordred], Rodor [Mithian], Godwyn [Elena]
<> Sacred Houses (3)
* 3 Everlasting Sacred and Noble Houses - Vidan [Life], Mortis [Death], Sidus [Elements]
<> Founders Houses (4)
* 4 Foremost Honored Noble Houses - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin
NOTE: The four Hogwarts Founders are honored not just for building Hogwarts but also establishing the first Empire-wide education system within the Empire of Albion. This would include the other schools of magic in the then territory of Albion. Those who came after built upon what the Founders had established, which is why they are not equally honored.
[] Minor Houses (300)
* 230 Aged and Noble Houses Baronium - Slughorn, Rosier, Rivers, Brown, Flamel, Moody, Davies, Hawkins, Blishwick, Entwhistle, Pucey, Higgs, Runcorn, Fudge, Cecil, Sidney, Patil, Shacklebolt, Prince, Kor, Pevensie, Krum, Delacour, Diya, Braun, Ferrers, Scrimgeour, Bowers, Cain, Sanchez. +200 more
* 70 Aged and Noble Houses Vavasour - Mason [Potter], Hunter [Potter], Smith [Potter], Crabbe [Malfoy], Goyle [Malfoy], Gaunt [Slytherin], Peverell [Gryffindor], Rowe [Ravenclaw], Vane [?], +62 more
NOTE: 3 per 7 Utmost Ancient, 2 per 12 Most Ancient, 1 per 4 Founder, 2 per 3 Sacred, 1 per 9 Knightly, 6 Royal for the monarch. (21+24+4+6+9+6)
* # Recognized and Noble Houses Novus - Uncountable.
[] Cadet Houses (#)
* The Noble Houses Familial - Arden, Butor, Clay, Fabbri, Hanse, Lefay, Martel, +# more.
These Minor Houses are the Recognized and Noble Houses Novus. While they are under most standards Cadet Families the fact that they were recognized by Monarch or Magic puts them on a slightly elevated position. This elevated position grants them at least a voting seat on the Wizengamot but also, though very rarely, a private hundred of their own.
According to both law and tradition these most minor of Minor Houses are still beholden to the Lord of their founding Great House. This status means following orders and accepting policy directions from their Lord. But, that said, ancient tradition and law also says that when it comes to them casting their votes they may do so as their concious requires of them.
NOTE: The actual number of Cadet Houses vary quite considerably from year to year and so it is quite difficult to give it an firm number. Especially, when one takes into consideration most are simply Banneret and have no vote at the Wizengamot, others are led by a Baronet and have one vote, and some few are led by Barons and thus have have two seats. What can be said, as an estimation, is that the average on the vote count is 70 though this does not help when it comes to the actual House count.
<> Section B : Wizengamot
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The Wizengamot is the combined legislative and supreme court for the Empire of Albion. That said, in the present day, it has focused its attention on magical Britain and Ireland rather than Albion in its entirety. It's history stretches back many thousands of years and has an authority backed by magic.
It has 900 seats and is led by the Chief Warlock, an official voted by the members from among the members, with members called Warlocks for reasons long lost to history. 500 are hereditary seats based on the noble houses, 100 are a mix of Ministry officials and Order of Merlin recipients, and 300 are commoners elected in regional elections.
By ancient tradition and even more ancient law, a member of the Wizengamot cannot be given a seat in multiple tiers. What this means is that a titled noble who works for the Ministry or has an Order of Merlin cannot take up one of the Ministry's official slots. The only exceptions to this is the Minister for Magic who may take up the Minister seat even if he is a titled noble.
As an interesting note the 'regional elections' are from all across Albion, even in the time without a Monarch. That means that despite the Wizengamot often not paying attention to events in those regions the people who live there are still given representation in the high body of Albion.
Voting is done magically through wand light or aura expression activation of the glyphs which reside on each and every seat. Said voting, and related counting, is both immediate and without fail and so what might take hours in muggle governments is but moments in Albion. Some results require thresholds, others majority, a few supermajority, and the rarest requries no nays (though abstains are allowed).
It should be stated that both House Pendragon and House Emrys have the broad right of veto and retroactive overview. This isn't, as it may seem at first, a power of the Crown, but rather that of the Honour of the Great House themselves. An Honour given to their Lord and Heads even if they do not hold the title of Monarch of Albion.
Besides the central chamber itself, which cotnains all members, the Wizengamot is 'divided' into a number of operation councils, some broad and some quite narrow. It is from these councils that legislation is drafted and organized before going before the full body for discussion and vote. It is also through these smaller councils that the Wizengamot takes up most of its judicial court duties, as there are rarely sitautions where the full body meets to judge the guilt or innocence. Said exception is when ti is a greater noble who is being tried, then that requires the full body to meet and vote.
Member Breakdown
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Great Houses - 500 seats
Imperial - 6 (3 seats)
Utmost - 22 (3 seats, +1)
Most - 24 (2 seats)
Ancient - 46 (2 seats)
Knightly - 18 (2 seats)
Sacred - 6 (2 seats)
Founders - 8 (2 seats)
Minor - 300 (1-2 seats)
Cadet - 70 (0-1 seat)
Ministry Officers - 100
Commoner Representatives - 300
<> Section C : House Ptolemy
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The Egyptian Ministry for Magic is directly ruled over by House Ptolemy, as is tradition. This means that there is a much less sharp divide between royal hundreds and Ptolemy private hundreds within Egypt. This status did not simply come out during the time of the Last Monarch but was rather the status quo from basically the dawn of the Empire of Albion. The current Ptolemy is the sixty-eighth one and goes by the name Ptolemy LXVIII.
House Ptolemy stretches all the way back to the conquests of Alexander the Great though it wasn't till the coming of Ptolemy XV (aka Caesarion) that it bound itself to Magic and began taking on the trappings that would later identify it as a Great House.
During the strong years of the Roman Empire the Egyptian provinces were governed just as any other province, though there were often Ptolemy agents involved. As the Empire was weakening sucessive Emperors gave House Ptolemy more and more authority, for all that it firmly remained in the Empire. When the East-West divide occured Egypt was a sort of neutral region beholden in some ways to both Emperors while being outside their purview in others. King Arthur didn't really change this status quo, for all that he tightened some of Egypt's ties to the rest of the Empire of Albion.
The Great Change, which saw the seperation of the magical world from the muggle, was done in such a way that made the muggles think that both the Ptolemy Dynasty and an independent Egypt were lost by the death of Caesarion and the rise of Octavion.