The Age of Houses is poised to enter a new sphere of greatness!

The vision for houses in Achaea has not always been completely clear; indeed, it has been changing ever since the transition from the age of guilds. Until today! We are excited to present a refocused paradigm for houses in Achaea.

The ideal relationship between a city and its houses is a cohesive, symbiotic one. Each individual house brings unique and valuable strengths to the city; the identity of each house is clearly tied to the city of which it is part, and together the houses clearly exemplify the city's ideals as a whole. Conversely, the identity of the city itself is dependent on its member houses.

So, what will the specific situation look like? Each city will have three houses. All houses will allow all classes (with some limitations, e.g. Mhaldor will not allow classes with the Devotion skill). Thus, anyone in the city can belong to any one of its three houses.

I should interject here that part of the reason for this refocusing is the upcoming shift to multiclass. All players will potentially have access to not just one, but two (possibly more) classes that they can switch between. You can see that this makes it problematic for single-class houses to continue in their current form.

As a result, this shift bring significant changes to the organisation of every city and their houses. In the coming years, each city will enter a period of introspection and transformation. During this time, the leaders of the city and its houses will work closely with the Garden to evaluate the purpose and direction of both the city and its member organisations. Near the end of the process, the houses will close to new membership for a short time.

At the end of this time will come the Renaissance: three houses will open their doors for membership, and each will be open to all classes that the city accepts. Some houses will be relatively unchanged; others will be transformed; others may not exist in the same form that they do now. It will be different for each city.

Also as part of the Renaissance, a program of city novicehood will be introduced to the city, which all new citizens will undergo before choosing a house.

Because its houses were established according to the new paradigm, Targossas will not be undergoing this process. The city of Cyrene will be the first to enter this time of change, and we look forward to announcing the Cyrenian Renaissance in the next Achaean year!

For those of you with questions (many I am sure!) I'll be fielding questions and clarifying what has been announced on this forum thread: http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/2263/house-renaissance

Penned by My hand on the 24th of Miraman, in the year 655 AF.