I'll throw my vote in for Palamedes on the  name count.

I will vote for Maccabeans.

Maccabeans: Zensunni Before It Was Popular.

Love the direction the discussion is taking. Just adding a couple clarifications or thoughts of my own to keep it going.

As someone pointed out, Maccabee is derived from the Aramaic ‘maqqaba’ which means, “the hammer.” I could see that being an awesome crest for the House, as the hammer can be both a tool for producing useful goods and other weapons, but also wielded as one as well, seems to fit the martial aspects of the House and could be a part of their mission to “craft” warriors.

If the House is proud of its supposed lineage of descendance from the original Maccabees, I could see them potentially using naming conventions popular among the leaders such as: Judas, Judah, Herod, John, Jonathan, Aristobalus, Antignous, Hyrcanus, Mattathias, Alexander/Alexandra, Mariamne, etc.

For the House Traits, players will be able to spend 1 Momentum point to apply one of the Traits to their characters for the scene. The House will have 1 Trait linked to the same domain as all its primary domains, so in this case, Military. It will also have a descriptive Trait that represents its reputation, which could be associated with its secondary domain of Espionage.

For our House Traits, I suggest 'Disciplined' and 'Honorable'. The first ties to our primary domain, and the second ties us to House Atreides.

In reply to The Game Master (msg # 32):

I love the image of a sledgehammer or engineer's hammer as our House symbol.

Motto: "Forged through experience."

Alternatives:

• "Forged Through Adversity"
• "Forged Through Discipline"

If we go with Discipline as one of our Traits, I think 'Forged through Discipline' would fit in with that nicely. As well as the hammer for the icon.

Indeed. Another alternative: "Discipline Through Adversity". I think I like that best.

I think I'll go with the Maccabees and whatever else Player 1 suggested (I like the idea of using the term "forged" in the motto, as in my imagery it is more appropriate for the "hammer" symbol).
Moreover, if it's fine for everybody else, I'd take the name Herod. :)

Liking just about everything I am seeing so far.

I am partial to Hyrcanus myself.

As the Herodian dynasty is the one that succeeded the Hasmonean (founded by Simon, the youngest of Judah Maccabee's brothers), we shall expect (and curse!) your sudden but inevitable betrayal. ~_^


I hereby call dibs on Salome Alexandra, after the Hasmonean queen of the same name. ^_^

In reply to Player 6 (msg # 41):

I think I heard that Salome is a name that goes well with Herod as well... ;P
This message was last edited by the player at 20:52, Sun 25 July 2021.

Haha, if those are some of our primary options, I'd be inclined to go with Jonathan myself. Simple but significant.

Below is a recap of the conversation thus far with the proposed options. Let's move ahead to voting on them or suggesting additions for consideration. Also, let's progress to identifying your preferred roles within the House. Perhaps list a primary and secondary that you would consider and we can see where we land.

House Name (Proposed): Maccabeans or Palamedes

Holdings: Western Continent, holding types to be determined

Banner and Arms:

- Colors (Proposed): red, black, and blue (all or some combination thereof)
- Crest (Proposed): bird’s talon or hammer
- Motto (Proposed): “Forged Through Experience,” “Forged Through Adversity,” and “Forged Through Discipline”

House Traits (Proposed): Discipline and Honorable (my note: does this potentially conflict with secondary domain?)

Primary Domains: Military (Workers) – military specialists, pilots, engineers, supply and logistics personnel

Secondary Domains: Espionage (Workers) – agents, spies, and infiltrators

History and Overview:

Work in Progress

Player Roles:

To Be Determined

My 2 cents

House Name (Proposed): Maccabee

Holdings: Western Continent, holding types to be determined

Banner and Arms:

- Colors Blue and Gold or Blue and White
- Crest (Proposed): Hammer
- Motto (Proposed): “Forged Through Discipline”

House Traits (Proposed): Discipline and Honor

Primary Domains: Military (Workers) – military specialists, pilots, engineers, supply and logistics personnel

Secondary Domains: Espionage (Workers) – agents, spies, and infiltrators

History and Overview:

Work in Progress

Player Roles:

To Be Determined
</quote>

After all, I think there is more consensus around the Maccabees and the symbol (+colours) could be a silver (or bronze?) hammer on a dark red field. WRT to the motto, I think that "Forged through Discipline" is the most appropriate.

I like the way its shaping up as well so far.

House Name: Maccabee seems to be holding pretty strong overall and that works for me.

Holdings: Ditto.

Banner & Arms: The hammer is good. Possible to even have it held in a bird talon if we want to play off the Atreides Hawk motif, but a straight hammer alone works as well. Silver hammer either way on the background of red? Maybe with Gold and/or Blue trim around the outside? Motto of 'Forged through Discipline' sounds great.


Traits: Discipline & Honor work for me.

Domains are good. History is the work in progress of course and as for player roles.. I was holding off a bit to see what others are interested in to try filling any holes.

For myself, I'd hope to be involved in a lot of the goings-on for the plots (though sure there will be multiple plots for the numbers we have here) and can be pretty active in posting most of the time. To begin with, I'd say: Heir, Spymaster, Advisor or Warmaster in that order. Although, as said, I can shift to plug some holes if others had their hearts set on any of those. Personally would love to get into the more political planning and devious aspects of plotting and such, hence that order. :)

How about this for our banner and arms: Gules, un marteau argent en pale (red, a silver hammer centered).

Looks good to me.
...and properly described...

Looks like things are really coming together and we are coalescing around a few items very well. I think the House history will emerge as we develop character background and personal histories. So I have recapped where we seem to have landed thus far and encourage everyone now to start to submit your top few roles that you would like to play.

Below is a recap of the conversation thus far with the proposed options. Let's move ahead to voting on them or suggesting additions for consideration. Also, let's progress to identifying your preferred roles within the House. Perhaps list a primary and secondary that you would consider and we can see where we land.

House Maccabee

Holdings: Western Continent, holding types to be determined

Banner and Arms:

- Crest: a hammer
- Colors: red and silver
- Motto: “Forged Through Discipline”

House Traits: Discipline and Honorable

Primary Domains: Military (Workers) – military specialists, pilots, engineers, supply and logistics personnel

Secondary Domains: Espionage (Workers) – agents, spies, and infiltrators

History and Overview:

Work in Progress

Player Roles (In order of preference):

Player 1 – Heir, Spymaster, Advisor, Warmaster
Player 2 –
Player 3 –
Player 4 – Marshal, Warmaster, Swordmaster
Player 5 –
Player 6 – Ruler, Spouse, Consort, Scholar, Envoy
Player 7 – Treasurer, Councilor, Advisor, Scholar
Player 8 –
Player 9 –
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:39, Sat 31 July 2021.

I'm OK with any roles. Happy to pick up whatever other players don't.

I don't actually have a copy of the rules yet.  :(   What are the available roles?

Some of the primary roles were listed up above, but here they are for quick reference:

- The Spouse of the Ruler
- The Consort of the Ruler
- The Heir to the Ruler
- Advisors
- Councilors
- Treasurer
- Physicians
- Envoys
- Marshal
- Scholar
- Spymaster
- Swordmaster
- Warmaster
- Etc.

I imagine the 'etc' would fill in anything not above that someone comes up with if they had something unique in mind.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:34, Thu 29 July 2021.