The most powerful becomes First House, and the person ruling that House becomes the Hegemon. The first three Houses also form the Council. Any House below these three doesn’t matter in the slightest, power-wise. The families intermarry, and over time each House becomes a bloated, inbred thing, both genetically and financially. And that’s just the way they like it, because that means they can do their harvesting, processing, and producing all within their own organization, which cuts down on costs.

Again, saving costs. This is a city run as a business, a finely tuned machine designed to squeeze every drop of blood out of every stone.

A machine needs to keep running. The Houses don’t get along so well, and someone has to keep them in line. Not police them, no. A Keeper’s job is never to embarrass a member of a recognized House or cause offense. Rather, the Keepers are present to make sure House feuds don’t get out of hand and develop into House wars. Open warfare between the Houses is absolutely forbidden. This isn’t altruism. It’s self-preservation. Nobody wants to get the Terran Empire thinking it might run the operation more efficiently.

Everything here has to be made by hand because the planet has forbidden all electronic technology. This was set down by their original founder and patron Saint, the Seer. It prevents the Terran Empire from placing any troops here, because there’s no risk of an armed rebellion. This affords the planet a lot of autonomy, as long as they keep the supply lines running smoothly. They know, though, if they’re ever found in violation of this old agreement, the planet will be seized immediately and run by martial law. This is why they brought me down in a shuttle to the only spaceport on the planet and confiscated every single piece of electronic gear I possessed. I’m writing this on parchment paper!

Thus, the Keepers are left in a precarious situation. They must maintain the peace without actually punishing any of the Houses. The only way the Keepers do their job is by investigating every hint of a House war, and bringing undeniable evidence before the Council of Houses. The Council of Houses has sole power over controlling which Houses are recognized and protected. No House wants to be accused of starting a House war, declared invalid, and dissolved. It hasn’t happened in the upper five Houses in almost two decades; only to some lower Houses who tried to climb too fast.

The Keepers themselves are broken into small Cells, operating mostly independently from each other. Their leaders meet periodically at undisclosed locations in order to coordinate, but these meetings are closed to outsiders except by express invitation. They seem to have their own code and their own brotherhood of sorts, though I’ve only begun to unravel it.