If you like you can look at the (sketchy, incomplete) GM notes as well.

The Noble District

The current district councillor is a man named Major Whittaker. He is a rather large man, famed for his love of food and drinking, and in his twenty years in the post he has had plenty of both. He is not well liked, as it is said he is a foul and lazy man who was placed in position by Zero merely to keep the nobility happy.

Despite appearances, however, the mobs still has some influence in the district. The nobility are not required to pay protection money, this branch of the criminal underworld is far more subtle than that. The district is home to somewhat notorious gentleman’s clubs, where the younger members of wealthy families are rumoured to go to supply themselves with coutesans and designer drugs. In prior days, these would have been under the control of the Columna; now, however, with the withdrawal of that family from the world of organised crime the Family has lost its grip on the aristocratic market for prostitution, and in their place the Dockyard Rats have proven more than capable of providing talent to the gentry - so long as said gentry doesn't try anything dangerous with the girls. For that, they must go to the Slums, where the Family's pimps care just a little less about their hookers' safety and just a little more about money.

As well as great vice, however, the Noble District is home to great virtue. Towards the Trade District is the old Montague family mansion, which was reclaimed by the adventurous Baron Montague during the Year of Chaos. When the Del Orto Orphanage in the Slums was attacked by the cult of the Mutilated One, the kindly Baron immediately offered a vacant wing of the mansion to house the orphanage until the Slums became safe again, and what with the gang war in the Slums, the sad death of Rosie del Orto, and the disappearance of Baron Montague into the Deep Treacherous, the orphanage never got around to moving back. Now the Montague-Del Orto Orphanage - and its associated Rosie Del Orto Memorial School - stands as an unwelcome reminder of the plight of the poor amidst the playground of the rich. Providing a home to penniless orphans, and a free education to the needy, the Orphanage and School are the most famous charitable institutions in the city, and are loved by all; despite this, mean-spirited aristocrats have tried to have it moved out of the noble district for quite some time, since they do not welcome the sight of poor children running up and down their clean, pristine streets. Every effort they have made to do so has failed, however, for the courts have been unwilling to rule Baron Montague dead - the last time this happened, he returned to prove everyone wrong, and occasional messages from him still reach civilisation, telling of wondrous discoveries in the Deep Treacherous. Whether the toffs like it or not, the Orphanage is here to stay.

Noble Families

• The Ferrars family, easily the eldest noble family in Horizon, are descended from one of the Emperor's first advisors. For over three thousand years the Ferrars had the ear of the Emperor - yet in 3347 HR the Emperor dismissed the then-Duke Ferrar from his service over what should have been a minor disagreement, and the Ferrars never regained his favour. Ever since then, with a few exceptions, the Ferrars have been regarded as frivolous wasters, a successsion of playboy Dukes and "it girl" Duchesses squandering the family fortunes. However, during the Last War Lady Christina Ferrars, a scion of a minor offshoot of the family, managed to restore some honour to the family name in her role as Mayor of Horizon and leader of Horizon's anti-Imperial insurrection. Meanwhile, most of the heirs of the Ferrars were killed defending the Empire in doomed battles, leaving the current Duke - Vincent Ferrars - to inherit the title. The now-ancient Vincent is said to be keen to restore the family's lost glory.

• The Dalcrow family are an ancient house with roots in the First Age and longstanding ties with Jurica. The first Earl Dalcrow was enobled by the Emperor for bringing Jurica into the Empire - he did this by saving Jurica's Fertile Band from a catastrophic drought using an irrigation system of his own design, winning the hearts of the Jurican people. Henceforth, the head of the Dalcrow household was always the Imperial Governor of Jurica, until the Emperor suddenly placed a military governor in charge of Jurica and summoned the Dalcrows back to Horizon (the new governor's despotic ways ended up provoking the Great Storm). This marked a downturn in the fortunes of the family, until during the Third Age they turned to trade and politics and began to rebuild their fortunes. The word is that the current Earl, Cornelius Dalcrow, is something of an eminence gris, and commands a significant amount of influence within the Goodly Chamber - although he rarely speaks openly himself.

• The Voltrapp family are an old, old institution in Horizon. They've survived mainly by sticking to tradition and following their own self-interest with rigid determination. In fact, they've been doing this for so long now that their own self-interest mostly consists of consolidating their position and supporting the status quo. During the Last War, Lord Voltrapp fought alongside the Imperial Legions just until it became apparent that the Emperor's forces were going to lose; at which point, he joined the side of Horizon like a shot. During the Year of Chaos, they did as they have always done: battened down the hatches and weathered the storm in their Gothic cancer of a family home. More than anything, the Voltrapps want stability: stability has always served them well in the past, and Lord Vincent Voltrapp sees no reason to do things any differently now.

• The von Jägers trace their origins to Vegarbarra, but have been nobles of Horizon for ten generations. The first von Jäger made his name as a trader and adventurer, most famously killing a fire daimon which had been formenting rebellion in Vegdarbarra. They have retained their merchantile instincts, adventurous inclinations and their passionate questing for unusual and obscure artifacts to this day, and are a major supplier of alchemical ingredients. The current head of the house, the Gräfin Marie von Jäger, is the mother of three adult children, each of whom in their own way are continuing the family's traditions of adventure, esoteric research, and shrewed business practices.

• The Milton family has a long running connection with the Church of the Intercessor, with four of the current Duke's eight children having entered the Church. Apart from that, they are generally well-liked by the common people and are well known for their generous donations to both the Church and the del Orto orphanage. Despite this, there has been on occasion some stife within the family, mostly down to the reluctance of the heir of the duchy to fully embrace the church.

• The del Orto family have suffered the embarrassment of their most recently-famous member - celebrated physician and charity worker Rosie del Orto - being a disowned daughter of the house, having been cast out by the Duke del Orto for some obscure infraction. The current Duke, Lucius del Orto, has publicly condemned his father's treatment of his sister, and - aside from making donations to the Montague-del Orto Orphanage and the Rosie del Orto Memorial School - has established the Orto Foundation, a charitable trust that gives money to the families of working-class individuals who die or go missing under traumatic circumstances. Lucius is also a devotee of the sport of skylarking. DISGRACED.

• The Hague family are the second youngest of the Heptarchs, having achieved their position in the aristocracy through the marriage of Montague Hague, grandfather of the current Lord Hague, to Lady McDunn, the last of a Heptarchic family whose members were decimated in the Irgar uprising of 3902 HR. The Hagues themselves were a merchantile family, and still maintain a stake in the Jurican trade (as well as, rumour has it, the smuggling trade). For some generations they were associated with anti-Imperial agitation, and Alfred Hague, Lord of the house during the Last War, was a close ally of Colonel Zero and Marshall Blanchard, eventually marrying the Colonel's sister. The current Lord, Admiral Michael Hague, is thus a favoured nephew of the Mayor, but has also led a distinguished naval career in his own right.

• The d'Avenant family are the newest Heptarchs. Their leader, Christopher d'Avenant, is a prominant monarchist; he is constantly embarrassed by the antics of his outcast pirate brother, Michael Avenant.

• Twenty years ago, the Columna were a menacing eccentricity of Horizon's ruling classes. Ruined in the Last War, the family had been reforged by Count Alric Columna, along with his sister Crace and brother Moebius, into a criminal gang, one of the notorious Three Families, of which the modern Family is the last surviving component. Formerly an honourable family dating from dawn of the Second Age, the Columna had always been perennially afflicted by the Columna Look, a set of disfiguring characteristics that strongly suggested the presence of fae blood in the line. The look was particularly strong in Count Alric, and some whispered that this was related to his turning his family into gang lords while keeping his seat in the Goodly Chamber. During the Year of Chaos, though, the family tore itself apart first, then turned upon the Daynann, one of the allied Families. In the end both were destroyed; with Moebius already dead in dark circumstances, Count Alric was murdered by the so-called "Dark Avenger", and Crace disappeared. The final one of the Three Families, the Kellor, absorbed what was left of the Daynann operation, and either destroyed or converted at swordpoint what was left of the Columna.

  The inheritor of the Columna estate was a distant younger cousin of the siblings named Ludovic. Count Ludovic Columna made simultaneous deals with the authorities and the Kellor to sever all links between the Columna Estate and the underworld, in return for a quiet life. He now runs the much-impoverished Columna estates more or less legitimately, and has so far been granted the peaceful chance to restore the family name that he wanted. Rumours abound, though, that there are many dark secrets yet hidden from the days of the old Count... secrets that Ludovic would pay dearly to find out, or to bury forever...

Such is what is known to all and sundry; naturally, additional information can be uncovered by those who wish to devote time to the research.