Houses of the Five Kingdoms of High Rock

House Thagor – Blessed of Akatosh, the Royal House of Daggerfall
The Thagor family, like everything of Daggerfall, is ancient indeed but twisted and convoluted over the numberless years of its existence. Though they claim to descend from the nigh-legendary King Thagore who opened the door to Daggerfall’s prosperity in the First Era, that is a dubious claim indeed for the throne of the kingdom has changed hands many times, usurpers, bastards and their ilk sitting upon it more than once; an uninterrupted line of succession from Thagore’s times is improbable at the least. Nevertheless, they are the kings of Daggerfall, and they are the power in High Rock, for now – it is upon King Camaron Thagor’s brow that the crown of the Bretons rests. Infamous for his womanizing and his drinking habits, the king is a passionate person whose life is at times a flurry and at others – a crawl. He has three children from his marriage with Kelmena, one girl and two boys. Elena, the daughter, is the eldest at six, while the boys - Branwic and Louis – are twins, aged four. Camaron’s sole other surviving relative is his uncle Stanice, forty eight, who is, by marriage to the duchess, the Duke of Oloine. Their marriage is a purely political one, however, and brings happiness to neither of them; on the contrary, Stanice has become well known for his antisocial tendencies, spending most of his time away from the politics and entirely absorbed in his morose mood.

House Gardner – Blessed of Akatosh, the Royal House of Wayrest
Though a Gardner was the first king of Wayrest, crowned in 1E 1100, their fortunes waxed and waned over the many years since. Many times they lost the throne to political machinations, sometimes for a century or even more; there were times when a Gardner had to look for support abroad and gain the throne by war, but such things are neither unheard of nor even uncommon in High Rock. The reign of the current king, the young Edwin Gardner, however, is unusual – for the first time since the First Era, Wayrest was made subservient to its eternal rival Daggerfall, a great stain upon their family and particularly Edwin himself that never fails to keep alive the sparks that may one day grow into a fire that burns this fragile creation of the Thagors, a united High Rock. Perhaps he was humbled in the Bay’s Eve War against the Anticlerian League, perhaps many think him a failure compared to his mother Elysana, but the king of Wayrest is not to be underestimated – he is a wealthy man, and a crafty one - a dangerous combination to his enemies. Trust lost can be bought back and troops dead can be replaced, if his family only gets the chance. Though he has only recently become twenty and may be lacking in experience, Edwin can count on the backing of his older cousin Roger – he may be more a merchant than a warrior, despite his knighthood, and his mother Oriana might still be alive and very much bent on toppling Edwin for what he brought upon their house and Wayrest, but he’s determined to set things as they should be and beat the Thagors back to Daggerfall, even if it means marrying his fourteen year old – infamously meek – sister Alandra off to what many in Wayrest perceive to be the savage wasteland of the Western Reach to secure Evermore’s support.

House Talaren – Blessed of Kynareth, the Royal House of Camlorn
By their current name, the ruling family of Camlorn is the youngest of all noble families of High Rock, royalty or not – it was only in 3E 418, soon after the Warp of the West, that they assumed this name to honour Princess – and later Queen - Talara, who wrested the throne of Camlorn back from the Duke of Oloine who wiped out the rest of the royal family in a coup; they are not, however, otherwise related to the previous royalty of Camlorn, whatever ties there were disappearing after Talara’s death during childbirth. The current rulers' fortunes do not seem to have improved much compared to their namesake's family – perhaps they are one of the five royal houses of High Rock, but Camlorn now is little more than a glorified vassal of Daggerfall’s, much more so than any other of the kingdoms. King Senhyn calls Camaron ‘brother’; everyone hears ‘sovereign’. Sixty four, it does not seem that his advanced age brought him wisdom – many consider the king to be a senile old man who wheezes oaths of friendship when Daggerfall demands it and waits for his time to come in the shadows of his halls, the fact that he appears to be losing control of his own body doing little to aid the image of a weak ruler in both body and soul. His sister, a whole twenty years younger than him, is known as a vicious old hag, her character terrible enough to inspire rumours of possession by spirits or influence of malevolent Daedric Princes; though she has a son of twenty years that might be perceived as a sign of hope, the young man is a bastard possessed of a disposition to match his mother’s, except rather dim-witted as well, stuffed away to a castle on an infertile slip of land due to pressure from Daggerfall. The only ray of sunshine for the family, so to speak, seems to be Camlorn’s twenty four year old princess Kelmena, Camaran’s wife and the mother of his three children who still bears some love for her husband – despite his many faults as a spouse – but not for the realm she is queen to.