Borderlands: The Noble Houses

The real political & economic power of the Borderlands are the Noble Houses  - decadent, depraved lines of noble families who were given charters of rulership back when the Empire was first formed. Over the decades, countless minor houses have spun off due to bastard scions or lands granted to sycophantic knights, but most of these hold allegiance to one of the major Houses.

Each house is extremely wealthy, holding large tracts of lands, indentured servants, guards, entourages and covert agents. While their many laborers break their backs in farms and mines and lumberyards, the landed gentry live in opulent luxury in their grand palatial estates. They travel to each other's holdings in heavily-guarded carriages, whereupon they feast, hold masquerades, drink themselves into a stupor and consume mind-altering drugs.

Nobles live in an entirely different world than most of those in the Borderlands - they wear elaborate, gaudy jewelry and clothes, cover themselves in powders and perfumes, and walk with elaborately bejeweled canes. All this is a front though - the clothes cover scratch marks from drug use, the powders hide syphilitic sores, and the canes hold hidden daggers to use against any rabble who deign to get too close.

At the foundation of the Empire, a dozen Noble Houses composed the electorate. However, after years of backstabbing, intrigue and outright genocide, only five remain: House Ford, House Danzig, House Osbourne, House Halford, and House Kilmeister.