On the Greatness of Great Houses
An excerpt from the pamphlet by Helena ‘ja Ioanna…
No institution is so admired and so sought after by the Empire’s elite families as admission to the Hundred Houses.
This is because those houses are blessed and a blessing upon the land. This is self-evident.
How else could they accrue such influence, wealth, and stature, but for the grace of the gods and their own beneficence to the people? To all those who claim the Hundred Houses maintain their grip on power through avarice, monopoly, political intrigue, nepotism, corruption, incestuous dealings, skullduggery, exploitation, wanton violence, and depravity, I say this: If they are so awful, why be they so blessed? Their goodness is self-evident in their station.
Of course, there are those houses which fall. Just as any house — if its blessings truly overflow — may be admitted to the Hundred Houses, so may any house be expunged. Invariably, when we examine such happenings as the downfall of once-great families, we find rot within, vices and corruptions in excess, blessings and beatitudes curdled. Thus, like a body ejecting sickness by seeping puss, the Hundred Houses expel evil from within. It is a self-healing body, and it is self-evidently good!
— Helena ‘ja Ioanna
