Character
House Alidel
A merchant house that became a wizarding one in a single generation
The Alidel are a new family of wizards. Two generations ago they were merchants and nothing else — rich, well fed, well connected, and entirely outside the hierarchy of blood the old houses use to rank one another.
Aurelius Alidel bought his son's place. Lucius Stoneheart sold him the recommendation for the Academy's aptitude test, took gold and rare dwarven cigars for it, then made him choose between protection for his family and a chance for the boy. Louise had wanted the Academy from the start, and she was right.
What they bought turned out to be an elemental sovereign. Aldor is bound to the realm of fire deeply enough that its elementals name him one of their lords and his spells strike above their level. He is credited with the death of Archon, and in the Free Era he is king of Cerberus.
He married Ivana Varanov, a born vampire and the granddaughter of the first one, joining a house of merchants to the clan that rules Vlad. Their children carry both lines.
What the Alidel had instead of ancestry was money, appetite, and an unreasonable amount of luck. What they have now is a line of their own.