Solari
"Power within."
Colour: White, accents of gold and light blue
Abilities: Surge and Drain
Manifesto: "Inside is the only place worth looking for power."
Homeworld: Iolaran
Artifact: Aelirae
Sigil: Thirty-three-spiked sun-burst
Families: Voltaren, Surnholt, Lumenhart
"Power within."
Manifesto: "Inside is the only place worth looking for power."
The sun on Iolaran does not let up, the ground gives nothing, and the well that runs dry stays dry. A people who waited there for the world to provide would not have lasted a generation. Solari did not wait. Where another house holds back for the opening it is offered, Solari makes its own, takes what it has decided to take, and spends without flinching on the certainty that it can make more. That is the house that grew out of the desert: self-made, decisive, the striker who runs the line hot and never lets it cool. The swagger was not bravado handed down in stories. It was the shape survival took on a world that offered them nothing at all.
Who they are
Solari is governed by three families, and every Solari belongs to one: Voltaren, Surnholt, and Lumenhart. Each casts a single vote, and the house decides two to one or three to nothing on the strength of surveys that refresh on a fast cycle across the roughly ten thousand people of the house, with the result taking effect the same day it is reached. There is no patience for a leader whose numbers fall. When the surveys drop for two cycles running, the vote is called at once, with no grace period; the new chair takes the post and the outgoing leader returns to working-group duty without ceremony. The house is told who leads on every change. Solari measures a leader by results and replaces them the moment the results stop coming.
The temperament shows in how a Solari carries themselves. An engineer does not apologize for her hand on the throttle. A diplomat does not phrase a request as a question. A Solari child learns early that the well goes dry and that the answer is not to ration but to find the next well, and the next. They are direct, confident, impatient with anyone who waits for permission. What they take, they take outward, against the desert and the scarcity it stands for, and what they win they tend to pour straight back into the next thing rather than bank it, because conspicuous private accumulation draws the same quiet reputational scrutiny here as in every house. The Solari engineer who tripled a settlement's collector yield in a season did not sit on the surplus. She put it into the next array before the first had finished paying for itself, and the house thought no more of that than of breathing.
What they hold
Solari settled Iolaran, a desert under a sun that does not let up, a world that offered a colony almost nothing it needed. There was little water, no easy resources, nothing that could simply be harvested from the surface. What the world did hold was an artifact the previous civilization had left behind: an engine that converts matter directly into energy at nearly total efficiency. On a planet that gave them nothing, that single machine gave them everything the sand could not, and it shaped the way the whole house came to think. Solari stopped looking outward for what it needed. It learned instead to generate its own power, relying on the engine and on its own discipline rather than waiting for the world to provide.
They called it the Reactor at first, for what it plainly did, and only later, as they learned to read the markings worked into its housing, did they recover the name its builders had given it. Aelirae. They kept the word even after the machine had become wholly theirs. They shared the basic principles early, and the fundamentals of energy reactors spread across the colony; the refinements, and the real and dangerous difficulty of containing a full matter-to-energy reaction, they kept.
Two centuries of living off that engine taught Solari something the desert never could. Matter was not a thing to guard. It was a state on its way to becoming power, and the house that ran the engine learned to see every surplus the same way, as fuel for the next conversion rather than a hedge against fear. A people who could make energy out of anything stopped saving against scarcity and started spending toward more, until producing and spending and producing again was simply how Solari moved through the world. The engine did not lecture them. It rewired the reflex.
Where they live
Solari still lives on Iolaran, and the desert dictates the shape of every day. Settlements are built underground or into rock and earth for thermal protection, low and shaded, with solar collection covering nearly every available surface. The hot middle hours are for rest and indoor work; the population is most alive in the cool of dawn and dusk and through the night. Water is the one resource everyone tracks, allocated by need and watched carefully in every household, the daily discipline of a people who live where water is the difference between a future and none. Children grow up understanding that the surface is for travel and for harvesting the sun, and that the real city is below.
Like every house, Solari supplies the necessities, water and food and shelter and medical care and education, and runs everything above that baseline on the requisition currency the six houses share, issued monthly and reset on a cycle so that it is spent rather than banked. Here the system fits the temperament exactly: a currency built to be burned rather than hoarded suits a people who believe more can always be made. Most of it goes into custom weapon and armor work from the house workshops. The settlements come alive in the cool of evening, when the heat lets go and an informal bazaar gathers in the shaded underground spaces, trading music and dance, written works, crafts, lessons, prepared meals, and the modification of personal gear, all of it held to the locked house identity of white, silver, and light blue, the desert-and-solar design language with the many-spiked sun-burst worked in proportionally. Music, dance, and storytelling belong to the night. Solari trades with no other house, by founding intent.
When it happened
Roughly two hundred thousand years before the colonists arrived, six civilizations rose on six worlds in the system the ancients called Solace, each grasping one fragment of what the universe is and building an artifact that held its philosophy in its design. The previous Solari was already energy-oriented, already a people who understood the world as power passing through form. They met the other five, each believed its fragment was the whole, and the competition ended in a war that destroyed them all. Each civilization's last act was to preserve its artifact and carve its name into the ruins. The Reactor was left on Iolaran, waiting in the desert for two hundred thousand years.
Humanity arrived after a crossing of roughly one hundred and twenty years, sixty thousand colonists across six survey vessels, ten thousand to a ship, three generations born and dying in the dark between stars. The ship that became Solari had left Earth as the Eternal Dawn. The colonists named the desert world Helios before they ever learned what its makers had called it. In the first decades there were no houses, only one mission and shared findings, and as each artifact came online its principles spread openly across the colony. Then the sharing tapered. Each group had spent long enough with its own artifact that the worldview had begun to shape it, and six ways of seeing the universe began to mistrust one another. Politics, then secrets, then the alleged raids. Roughly fifty years after arrival the six houses were formally declared, a public acknowledgement of a turning that had already taken place. Solari, by then, had become the house that makes its own power and answers to no scarcity, and in the present Era of Stratagem that is exactly what it remains.
Why they fight the way they do
Solari believes that power is not something the universe hands out and not something to be waited for. It is something you produce, out of will and out of the engine, and the inside is the only place worth looking for it. The house has contempt for caution dressed up as wisdom, for the player who hoards and waits and calls it prudence. To Solari, to hesitate is to waste, and to wait for permission is to have already lost.
At the table that conviction becomes a way of fighting in surges. Solari's cards generate power, draw deep, and produce more than was paid into them, while the other side of the hand reaches across the line to pull the opponent's resources away. The opponent thins while Solari swells, and the longer the game runs the more lopsided it grows. There is no rationing in a Solari hand, no holding back for later, no saving the strong play for a safer turn. Everything goes into the moment worth winning, on the certainty the engine will make more, and the well that Solari draws from never, ever runs dry.
Plays by Surge and Drain.
Life in the house
Canon: from the universe-details walkthrough.
Governance
Three families hold the votes inside Solari: Voltaren, Surnholt, Lumenhart. Each family casts one. Surveys refresh on a fast cycle across the roughly 10,000 Solari population. Decisions resolve at 2-1 or 3-0 and the result takes effect the same day. The current chair is announced to the other houses on every change. Leaders are replaced when survey numbers fall for two consecutive cycles. There is no grace period. The vote is called immediately. The new chair takes the post and the outgoing leader returns to working-group duties without ceremony.
Military and fleet structure
Solari maintains three command ships in active service, all kept at high readiness. Each command ship supports ten squadrons of three fighters. Squadrons must move with a command ship. The chair leads by default and frequently delegates command to a Commander or Captain whose recent results justify the appointment. Ranks follow the standard ladder: Ensign, Lieutenant, Commander, Captain, Admiral. Promotion turns on demonstrated effectiveness. Universal conscription begins at age eighteen and includes basic combat training for all citizens. The standard-issue weapon is a staff-shaped energy rifle drawing on Reactor-derived power-cell systems no other house can replicate. The weapon is lightweight and charges from any conduit. Conscripts retain their weapon for life. Pilot training is the most pursued specialized track.
Justice
All crimes committed by Solari are tried by Solari regardless of where the crime occurred or who the victim was. Trials are conducted quickly. Charges, evidence, and judgment proceed in a single session whenever possible. A panel drawn from the three families issues the verdict. The result takes effect immediately. Capital punishment applies only to murder, attempted murder, and treason against the house. The convicted chooses between a method of execution and the Nox-surface option. Lesser crimes are resolved through restitution and service requirements that return the convicted to active contribution. Cross-house disputes are negotiated between the chairs of the involved houses. If negotiation fails, trial by combat is invoked. Parameters are agreed and the match is set without delay.
Daily life and culture
Solari lives on Iolaran, a desert planet. Settlements are built underground or in deep shade, with surface activity concentrated at dawn and dusk. The hot middle hours are for rest and indoor work. The cool hours are when the population is most active. Water is the universally tracked resource and water management is a daily concern in every household. Most homes are built into rock or earth for thermal protection. Architecture is low and shaded. Solar collection covers nearly every available surface. Personal dress is light, layered for sun protection, and traditionally white or light-colored, with house identity showing in jewelry and woven patterns on outer garments. Institutional dress, military uniforms, armor, science officer kits, engineer gear, and house property follow the system-wide visual identity rule: house colors (white, silver, light blue), desert-and-solar design language, and the many-spiked sun-burst sigil integrated proportionally throughout. Meals tend toward small frequent eating throughout the active hours. Music, dance, and storytelling are evening and night activities.
Economy and wealth
Solari operates on a contribution-based model in which currency is earned through contribution: necessities are supplied, and an internal requisition currency covers everything above the baseline (detailed below). Necessities including food, water, shelter, medical care, and education are supplied by the house. Water in particular is allocated by need and tracked carefully. Every adult contributes to house operations as a baseline expectation. The original colonists were selected partly for this contributory disposition and the trait runs through the population. Conspicuous accumulation of resources beyond personal need is socially scrutinized. The cultural norm against greed is enforced informally through reputation and standing. An informal bazaar runs continuously in most settlements, concentrated in shaded indoor or underground spaces. Mornings are quiet. Activity picks up by mid-morning, peaks through the working hours, and dies down by dinner. Music, dance performance, written works, crafted objects, shared experiences, custom modification of personal weapons and armor, lessons, custom skill-work, and small restaurants serving prepared meals are exchanged through barter or reciprocal service. Modification specialists work alongside other artisans and follow the locked house visual identity regulations on all weapon and armor work. The bazaar is a primary social gathering point. Solari does not trade with any other house.
Requisition. Above the supplied baseline, members draw an internal requisition currency. It is issued monthly: everyone receives a baseline minimum, and more is earned through effort, completed assigned tasks, and standing salaried allotments for full-time duty positions, with bounty-style bonuses for high-risk or optional missions. Requisition is use-it-or-lose-it: balances reset roughly every six months, so it is spent within its cycle rather than hoarded into private wealth. It buys personal gear and, most visibly, the armour and weapon upgrades and modifications commissioned from house workshops. Requisition is the same across all six houses: one monetary system the founding colonists arrived with and never changed, because it always worked. Each house issues its own members' requisitions; the unit itself is common to the whole system (see how Solace runs).
Religion and meaning systems
Religion is treated as a personal and private matter in Solari. People hold whatever spiritual or philosophical orientation they were raised in or have chosen, and Earth-inherited traditions persist across generations through individual practice. People can discuss their views openly when they choose to. Celebration, ritual, prayer, and contemplation are conducted in the domicile rather than in public, work, or bazaar spaces. Solari does not institutionalize any religion. The house has no official spiritual orientation, no clergy, no sponsored holidays, and no religious structures within Solari settlements. The Veil is taken seriously across the population. It is understood as an investigative threshold, a way to seek knowledge of the self, the universe, and the previous civilization. It is not worshipped. The Guides, Witnesses, and Gatekeepers are custodians and investigators, not clergy.
Sub-faction relationship
Solari treats service in any of the three sub-factions as honorable. Citizens who join are recognized publicly and their families are proud. Returning retirees are welcomed back into Solari civilian life. Solari contributes personnel to the Guides, Gatekeepers, and Witnesses in equal share with the other five houses. The sub-factions enforce strict balance and will pause recruitment from a house if it falls short of qualified candidates rather than draw unevenly. Solari Guides are drawn from those with relevant preparatory skill or those who have personally crossed the Veil and returned. Solari Gatekeepers are drawn from citizens with battle or training experience. Solari Witnesses are drawn from retired political figures, with rare exceptions for citizens whose temperament fits the role. When the Gatekeepers request ships, materials, or personnel, Solari supplies its share without delay. The obligation is absolute and not subject to vote.
Families
The three genetically distinct lines of the house, one vote each.
Heroes
The house's three hero cards (one per family). Names are canon; stories open.
- Hannah Voltaren
- Soren Surnholt
- Vega Lumenhart
Related
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the-reactor (artifact)
- iolaran (homeworld)
- the-veil
- the-archive-institution