The fall of the Conquest Wars left Nova Prime carved into countless petty dynasties. Noble bloodlines clung to power, but their castles and titles could not hold back the tide of change.
Industry — the fire harnessed not from dragons, but from coal, steam, and later circuitry — reshaped the world. The Proven’s silence lingered, but mortals had found new gods: commerce, invention, and power.
With prosperity came shadows. As cities swelled, so too did the hunger of those left behind. It was in these shadows that a frail boy named Peter Carrow would forge the foundation of Nova Prime’s most infamous underworld empire.
Aftermath of the Conquest Wars: The defeat of the Lycans fractured their empire, leaving warlords and kings scrambling for territory.
HavenReach Ascendant: Emerging from war scarred but intact, HavenReach transformed from a besieged kingdom into a center of trade and governance. Its noble lines evolved into politicians and magnates.
The Decline of Nobility: Old houses like the Finstads still carried their names with pride, but swords gave way to stocks and contracts. Nobility became aristocracy, and aristocracy became industry.
Cities as States: With industry came sprawling cities, each growing into semi-independent powers. Mayors became warlords in suits, and city councils replaced royal courts.
HavenReach as Model: The first to transition into a city-state, HavenReach pioneered centralized trade, law, and governance — the foundation of Nova Prime’s later “mayor-first” political system.
The President Concept: For a short time, HavenReach’s unifying figure (Peter Carrow himself) held both the title of Mayor and President — though his reign would end in fire and rope.
Birth and Survival: Born frail, with brittle bone disease, Peter Carrow was discarded at birth — thrown into a ditch, mistaken for dead. Yet he survived. His life became a testament to endurance through pain, a constant reminder that weakness can breed strength.
Rise to Power: Carrow clawed his way up from poverty, uniting gangs and outcasts under his banner. With charisma, ruthlessness, and an unmatched sense of opportunity, he became both the first true Mayor of HavenReach and, effectively, Nova Prime’s first President.
The Fall: His refusal to bow to nobles and his hunger for influence led to accusations of crimes against the state. He was executed by hanging — a martyr to some, a villain to others.
The Legacy: His descendants and followers rejected the government entirely, forming the backbone of what would become the Orion Syndicates.
Origins: Born from Carrow’s family and lieutenants, the Syndicates began as small-time smugglers and enforcers. By the close of this era, they had become a continent-spanning network of crime families.
Specialties:
Drugs and narcotics (control through addiction).
Smuggling (relics, weapons, rare tech).
Cybernetics (illegal mods, combat augments).
Black-market relics (ancient Proven and demonic artifacts).
Power Base: The Warrens in New Haven — a district built on poverty and shadows, but pulsing with illegal life.
Cultural Influence: The Orion Syndicates became synonymous with rebellion against centralized authority, romanticized as both liberators of the poor and oppressors of the desperate.
The Fall of Kings: Dynasties gave way to city-states. Titles meant less than contracts and machines.
The Birth of Organized Crime: Carrow’s defiance planted the seed of Nova Prime’s enduring underworld — a power rivaling that of governments.
Urban Politics: The framework of modern Nova Prime’s political system was set: cities ruled by mayors, each a nation unto itself, unified loosely under a President.
The Shadow Economy: Industry created wealth, but it also created disparity. That disparity gave the Syndicates endless recruits, resources, and staying power.
(From the First Syndics to the House of Carrow)
The Orion name was not always synonymous with crime. Long before the Syndicate, the Orions began as merchant-princes in the coastal city of Gransport during the early expansion of the Nova Prime city-states. Their trade fleets ferried salt, silk, and alchemical reagents across the Inner Seas, bringing them both wealth and resentment. Unlike noble houses who flaunted their status through patronage or monuments, the Orions practiced quiet acquisition: they bought out rivals, bribed guildmasters, and funded mercenary companies to break strikes and assassinate competitors.
By the late Copper Age, the Orions had entrenched themselves as power brokers. Their family creed—"control the flow, and you control the world"—referred first to goods and coin, then to bloodlines and influence. Even then, whispers accused them of dabbling in poison craft and black alchemy smuggled from desert caravans, using toxins not only to silence foes but also to test loyalty within their ranks.
The title of “Syndic” arose in the early Iron Age, when the Orions abandoned their veneer of legitimacy and openly embraced their reputation as crime-lords. They organized the scattered gangs and smuggler bands into what was then called the Orion Compact, a loose brotherhood of thieves, assassins, and corrupt merchants. Unlike their noble peers, the Syndics did not rely on inherited titles but on fear, cunning, and results. An Orion Syndic could have been a merchant’s son, a pirate captain, or even a disgraced magistrate—provided they bent the knee to the family.
One of the most infamous was Gaius Orion, remembered as The Snake of Gransport. He pioneered the use of criminal lawfare, bribing judges to enforce debts against his rivals and then seizing their estates through technically legal means. In the streets, he established the Orion “guild tax”—an early protection racket disguised as civic duty. From Gaius onward, the Orions became seen not as merchants but as the shadow rulers of the Warrens, the underbelly of Nova Prime’s largest cities.
The Orions cultivated an image of venomous authority that persists to Damian Carrow’s reign. Every generation carried tales of infamous methods: poisoned banquets, missing rivals found flayed in alleys, heirs disinherited through staged scandals. Their family sigil—often a serpent coiled around a chalice—emerged from these bloody traditions. To them, cruelty was not indulgence but a message: cross the Orions, and death will not just find you—it will linger.
Centuries later, the Orion bloodline fractured after a failed succession. The main branch collapsed during the Guild Wars, when rival trade families allied to burn Orion warehouses and purge their enforcers. But from this ashes rose the Carrow branch, distant cousins who had embraced a darker, more covert philosophy. Where the old Orions relied on visible dominance, the Carrows thrived in shadows, corruption, and psychological terror.
By the modern age, figures like Damian Carrow and his enforcers (Sawbones, Hoss, Isabella, Damon, etc.) are direct inheritors of this legacy. Their manners, their cold efficiency, even their obsession with poisons and calculated brutality—all are echoes of the early Orion ethos, refined over generations of blood.