House Tepes

Quote

 * Alexandreu Tepes: "You have prepared all your life to be a Tepes, while already innately being one."
 * Maximillion Tepes: I'm not sure I understand why our motto is "Power Over Thine Enemies"
 * Alexandreu Tepes: "We got our start being the knives in the shadows who slayed enemies of the crown. When we came here, we had to become conquerors to cease attempts by the other Noble Houses to seize our lands. At the end of the day, whatever our pretense, we will always be killers. In order to kill those who would kill us first, we must have something we can use on our enemies: knowledge, military might, raw mystical power, the wealth of gold, what have you. These things are 'power', and we will only survive so long as we possess resources - or 'power' - that exceeds our would-be foes. The amassing of those resources will be how we survive, and what we are forever known for."
 * — Lord Alexandreu Tepes to his son Maximillion Tepes

House Tepes
House Tepes of Mount Vulgore is a Great House of Shi'Kharath, ruling over the northern continent known as The Northern Kingdoms from their seat in Castle Tepes within Mount Vulgore. It is one of the oldest lines of Shi'Kharathian nobility by far, claiming a line of descent stretching back over eight thousand years.

Despite proclaiming the Head of House Tepes - Alexandreu Tepes - as the King of Shi'Kharath, no attempts have been made to usurp the the monarchy of any of the preexisting Kingdoms of Shi'Kharath, save for those that have tried and failed to raise up against House Tepes. Those powers that tried to destroy House Tepes have found their realms and vassals possessed by House Tepes, and any Houses or Clans housed within those kingdoms who would not bow a knee found every member of their bloodline executed (by mysterious means) within the month.

Military Strength
House Tepes has powerful Necromancers and Summoners who employ the use of the Dead, the Undead, and various Elemental entities to supplement their military strength, adding to their numbers with every fatality incurred on the battlefield. Gathering the full military strength (non-conjured) of House Tepes can potentially be a difficult process, requiring months of travel time and the ability to supply and feed the host even before it even departs; however, with the use of Alexandreu Tepes's highly advanced and complex transportation magicks, large ground forces can usually be relocated in a fraction of the time as-needed.

The total non-conjured/non-undead forces of House Tepes is 82,000 to include cavalrymen, archers, siege machine operators, bannermen, archers, necromancers, spellcasters, and various air- and ground-based units. While a skirmish is taking place, casualties taken by the forces of House Tepes are immediately raised as combatants who promptly turn upon their former allies, usually as 'fodder' to occupy and demoralize the enemy while other forces are flanking and overwhelming at the same time.

Despite these terrifying forces, House Tepes usually conducts their sieges and assassination missions personally, 2- to 4-man cells usually operating under cover of darkness, aiming directly for the Lords, Ladies, Barons, Dukes, High Nobles and occasionally even errant Sovereigns, to 'take the head' of their opposition directly, without dealing with ground battle, due to the sheer toll on resources moving such great units can take.

Ancestry
House Tepes draws its ancestry directly to Exodus "Apocalypse" Soulcry, who generally operates from within the shadows, the unseen puppeteer operating various factions according to some unknown 'master plan' that the members of House Tepes alone know the manner and nature of.