The Crimson-Ring Dynasty

An ancient dynasty that reckons its years by the 'Crimson-Ring Calendar.' Here, magic is not a skill to be learned, but something monopolized, inherited, married into, and cursed by the Seven Great Houses.

Commoners have no magic. Magic is called Bloodcurse, flowing in the bloodlines of the Seven Great Houses—its potency maintained through marriage, its loss of control restrained through oaths, and the balance among the seven bloodlines regulated by The Crimson-Ring Crown at the center of the capital.

The dynasty has stood for twelve generations since its founding. On the surface, this is an elegant order that has run for over a thousand years—noble ceremonies, bloodline marriages, the crowning of kings. But when the heirs of the capital begin to die off one after another, the thing pressed down beneath this order begins to leak out.