Royal Houses and Family Names
In many countries with royal families, the name of the royal household stands in as the surnames of the countries royalty. In others the family household is indistinguishable from the surnames of royalty. Not so in Esplandia. Surnames originated with settlers arriving from the Kian Empire while Esplandian house names originate from Hastfradic tribal traditions.
Tribal names served to distinguish a warrior's relationships as well as serving to bring honor to the clan. Most tribal names are derived from the names of animals or spirits. By the time the Hastfrads settled in Esplandia, tribal names had come to represent one's loyalties more so than group relations and loyalties could easily change or shift. Following a few centuries of intermarriage, the Hastfrads soon adopted the Mercanti tradition of surnames to distinguish paternal lineage.
After the Hastfrads became dominant amongst the ruling elite, they began to style their house names after the Kianese way. This was done mostly to appear to the Emperor that they were civilized and integrating, while also distinguishing themselves as equal to the imperial nobility. House names however took on, at first, a very broad role. Members of the house patriarch's inner court were members of the house, as well as household Knights. Leaving a rulers service meant leaving the household. For a long time this way of distinguishing loyalties remained dynamic.
As the region became more centralized with nobles serving as the Archduke's advisors, house names shifted to include only members of the rulers immediate families. Daughters married off retained their house membership but their children didn't. Sons retained theirs, as well as their children, but the next generation did not. Adopted children, or stepchildren whose parents married into the household could become members of the house with the permission of the patriarch.
In the three centuries preceding Esplandia's independence from the empire, thousands of new houses were formed by nobles who would not inherit their house names, as well as by knights who had been landed. Amongst those created during this time period was the de Halcóns. The house was founded by a knight named Geoffrey Bradford when he bested Archduke Groza IV de Menatu in battle and forced the Duke to name him as heir. The de Halcóns held onto the Grand Duchy for nearly two hundred years before leading the duchy to independence in 1582.
