Fantasy is often heavily inspired by the days of old when there were nobles and knights and princesses–some of these things are still around, but not in the same capacity or style, of course. Either way, if you’ve read books like A Song of Ice and Fire or books like The Ruin of Kings, then you’ll find that the authors choose to write about things pertaining to “noble houses.” Well, what is exactly is a noble house and how can you create noble houses in your next fantasy project?
WHAT IS A NOBLE HOUSE
A noble house is basically referring to a family that holds some sort of power on some level in a given country, empire, or region. A noble house tends to be land-owning, and by land-owning, I don’t mean a small plot of land; no, these nobles tend to own massive acreage and command servants. These houses tend to serve politically or militarily in the government of their nation and command great influence and hold great portions of the wealth of the nation they inhabit.
Creating noble houses in fantasy is actually a fun task, because when you write about these sorts of groups and families, you open the doors for a very complex story. The ultra-wealthy tend to have a lot of drama, power struggles, and conflict surrounding them. Plus, people tend to find stories about the nobility interesting because, well, why not? There’s something almost intriguing about the glamor and darkness that lies in the folds of these noble houses.
Many authors like to dive into the corruption in noble houses, as well as their impact on the nation at large. Others tend to romanticize it in a way that makes it seem awesome to be part of these noble houses. I’d argue that most stories that feature noble houses tend to run on the darker side, but either way, it’s totally up to you and your writing style.
Now, let’s actually talk about how to create your own noble houses!
CREATE THE NAME
In A Song of Ice and Fire, we find that there are noble houses with names like House Targaryen. In The Ruin of Kings–which was a great book I recently read–there’s House D’Mon. In one of my new WIPs (shh, don’t tell anyone!) there’s House Vintardun. Whatever name you decide on picking, there’s a few things you should keep in mind.
First, consider the language and culture of your world. In the case of House Vintardun, it hails from the Empire of Amhadria and this empire is greatly inspired by the Ancient Roman empire. The language plays on Latin with a twist, but it still retains a similar sound, so-to-speak. If you want to know how to create a language and a culture for your fantasy world, then you can check out the guides available to read on my website.
WRITE THE LORE/BACKSTORY
Any good noble house will have some sort of backstory or lore as to how they became nobility. Typically, these sorts of noble houses will have formed at the onset of a kingdom/empire and will have been politically influential and important from the get-go.
However, there has to be a reason why that specific family was able to ascend to such an important and powerful position in society. This is where writing the lore of your noble houses comes into play.
Writing lore is essentially just like writing a history piece. Imagine you’re reading about this particular noble house in some textbook or in a history analysis: How would it sound? What would be talked about? You have to think about essential elements to this lore like who the founder/head of the noble house is, how they achieved their power, what role did they play, etc…
SELECT THE ROLE
Even if a certain noble house started out in one thing, they can end up switching their specialty and role in the kingdom/empire later. So, what you want to do is think about what role does the noble house in your story currently play. What sort of important things do they do in the now rather than back then?
Perhaps this particular noble house is the patron of the arts in your designed country. Maybe your noble house is a power-hungry one that seeks out buried treasure across the world.
This is totally up to you and depends on the bounds and confines of your own story.
DESIGN A CREST OR SYMBOL
Every good noble house should have some sort of crest, coat of arms, symbol, glyph, etc… denoting who they are. This symbol should play a role in showcasing one of two things: The noble house’s origins OR their current role in society.
We see a lot of coats of arms from medieval nobility and families, and you can actually look up real-life examples of them. Designing your own can be pretty simple because you can use online generators, AI generators, or just plain hand-draw/digitally draw your symbol/glyph/coat of arms for your noble house. When you do this, also think about the colors used and why you’ve selected them. Maybe the specifically chosen colors indicate the history of the noble house.
I think that doing fun little details like this can enhance telling the story from your perspective as an author. When you can visualize and really immerse yourself in the process of designing these sorts of things, you get more emotionally invested in the world you’re creating.
DEVELOP THE FAMILY TREE
Even if your noble house is open to outsiders from the family, more often than not, the biggest components of the leadership will be family-exclusive members.
What you want to do is to design the family tree present in your noble house by beginning with things like who the head of the family is, their spouse, their children, their brothers/sisters, etc… When you do this, you also want to think about the most important people in the family and what role they play in the overall impact that noble house has on the country.
You can also create a line of succession when you do this, so basically, think about if the head dies, who would replace that person? What sort of succession system does this noble house go off of?
CREATE CONFLICT
Like with any nobility, there will always be conflict. Which is exactly why you should think about conflict in the context of your own story.
As we see in stories like A Song of Ice and Fire, there is PLENTY of conflict between the nobility and their houses. When there are so many groups vying for ultimate power, there’s bound to be some level of conflict.
Maybe there are some noble houses in your world that were engaged in bloody conflicts, or maybe they are fighting for control of the same resources. Conflict can help to engage your readers more and give them a reason to be invested in the story as well. Additionally, this can help create either a major plot or a subplot for your story, and conflict is bound to make your plot/subplot interesting.
WHAT ABOUT ROMANCE?
I think one of the more interesting aspects of stories about nobility is exploring romance in the context of these sorts of noble houses. I also find it particularly interesting to write about in relation to conflict.
You can definitely develop a lot of romance stories within noble houses or even within a single one, granted that they are not related–that would be strange. Still, you could develop enemies-to-lovers stories, love triangles, and more.
Now, romance is not a requirement and if you’re not a big romance fan, maybe you won’t enjoy writing it, but if you do like romance, try to incorporate something into your noble houses.
And before you go, don’t forget to check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga. You can buy my books over on Amazon right now!