House Cannith, consisting of humans with the Mark of Making, includes alchemists, artificers, and magewrights of great skill, as well as the best mundane crafters on the continent. House Cannith arose in pre-Galifar Cyre almost twenty-five hundred years ago. Originally, the Cannith clan consisted of traveling tinkers, repairers, and crafters whose burgeoning dragonmarks gave them an edge over the competition. As the house developed, it turned its attention to supernatural disciplines, studying alchemy and pioneering the techniques of artificers and magewrights. As builders, fixers, and creators, the house maintains a lawful outlook. Some of its greatest accomplishments include the lightning rail, the warforged, and the high-rising towers of Sharn.
The destruction of Cannith’s ancestral estates in Cyre and the death of the patriarch have thrown the house into chaos. Three leaders have emerged, each intending to lead the house into the future. While the situation hasn’t yet grown as bad as the split in the Mark of Shadow family that resulted in the creation of a new house, none of the emerging Cannith leaders is willing to accept the others as the new house patriarch. So far, they have reluctantly shared influence in the family by concentrating on their own regions and not attempting to pull the entire family together.
Baron Jorlanna d’Cannith (LN female human, wizard 8) operates out of Fair haven and oversees the house’s efforts in Aundair, Thrane, and the Eldeen Reaches. Baron Merrix d’Cannith (LE male human, artificer 9/dragonmark heir 3) leads the house’s activities in Breland, Zilargo, and Darguun from holdings in Sharn. Baron Zorlan d’Cannith (NE male human, artificer 3/sorcerer 4/dragonmark heir 1) controls house operations in Karrnath, the Mror Holds, and the Lhazaar Principalities from an enclave in Korth.
House Cannith maintains two guilds. The Tinkers Guild serves to maintain society by repairing damaged structures and vehicles, maintaining infrastructures in the major cities, and performing similar crafts. Cannith tinkers often travel on circuits between smaller villages, using magical and mundane skills to assist communities that they pass through. The Fabricators Guild performs the greatest works of craft, artifice, and magic. The guild is divided into dozens of specialties, including architects, elemental binders, alchemists, and armorers. The Fabricators Guild closely guards the secrets of its creation patterns. With one of these patterns (each made up of three or more sections called schemas), a member of the guild can replicate an item faster and with less effort than someone working without a pattern.
The services provided by House Cannith are invaluable, and all the nations and dragonmarked houses have an interest in maintaining friendly relations with the House of Making. House Cannith’s greatest enemy is itself. Both Jorlanna and Zorlan seek to gain control of the entire house, while Merrix is content to rule over the southern interests and continue his secret experiments deep beneath Sharn.
Roleplaying a Cannith
1. House Cannith
Your house, and by extension you yourself, are the undisputed masters of artifice. Your house has a near monopoly on finely crafted goods across Khovaire, giving you and your house incredible power and sway, and you know it. As a Cannith Artificer, you have had access to the finest of facilities, the best of teachers, and (at least in your own mind) hold a position that commands respect. After all, by default as a Cannith and by fact as an Artificer, you are one of the greatest craftsmen alive, the lesser people should defer to your expertise in matters of crafting and magical items, simply because there is no one better equipped to make such decisions.
However, some people will tend to see you as being dismissive, self absorbed, or simply too full of yourself, but they don’t understand the impossible pressure that you live up to every day. Being the best means that only the best is acceptable. You have to constantly prove yourself worthy of your airs, by crafting the most exquisite items, reclaiming powerful items for your House, and maintaining the image of strength your house projects. What you can’t let people know is how much of that power is true, and how much of it is purely illusion. Everyone knows the seat of power for your House was in Cyre, and the blow to the house was as great as that the rest of the continent suffered, if not greater, but the public can only be allowed to see how you are pulling yourselves back to your feet and moving on from the tragedy, they can never be allowed to know how close your House is to an outright civil war for control. Three separate factions, three strong leaders, all vying for control over House Cannith as a whole.
As a member of Cannith South, based out of Sharn, you support Lord Merrix d’Cannith, primarily due to his devotion to the craft moreso than to politics. He doesn’t want power for power’s sake, he wants power so that he can get back to work, so that you can all do away with petty squabbles and become the economic and technological powerhouse you once were. As an adventuring Artificer, you are just as likely to see the jungles of Xen’Drik as you dig for lost magical treasures to aid your house, or to brave the fearsome expanses of the Mournlands trying to reclaim a bit of your heritage and lost power as you are to simply sit in an enclave hammering out a breastplate for a wealthy patron.
As a character, you can be overconfident in your own abilities, a bit on the boastful side, and always ready to give your advice on how a situation should be handled. This can come off grating on some people, but its not entirely your fault, as you were raised to believe that you were one of the best, and that you were destined for great things. Although, when sleeping under a bush in the middle of nowhere, those boastful promises can ring a little hollow as you wonder if your mighty house will ever be the same again.
