Overview
House Dragonfiend is one of the oldest and wealthiest noble houses of [Tir], tracing its position back to the slaying of the creature remembered simply as the Black Dragon.
The dragon had accumulated an enormous hoard before its death. Much of this treasure passed into the hands of its killer and became the foundation of the Dragonfiend fortune. Although greatly diminished over the centuries, the wealth of the hoard financed the family's estates, influence and political independence for generations.
The Black Dragon remains upon the arms of the house, shown wounded by the sword that killed it.
Unlike many of Tir's great houses, the Dragonfiends have rarely been remembered simply for their wealth. At several points in Tirian history they have used that wealth, and the independence it afforded them, to take positions that would have been considerably safer not to take.
History
The Black Dragon
The house traces its foundation to the warrior who slew the Black Dragon.
Little survives concerning the dragon itself beyond the stories preserved by the family and the enormous quantity of treasure recovered from its lair. Whatever exaggerations later generations added to the tale, the treasure was quite real. Gold, jewels and other valuables taken from the dragon's hoard established the Dragonfiends among the richest families in Tir.
The killing of the dragon subsequently became the defining image of the house. Their arms still depict the wounded black dragon and the sword responsible for its death.
For generations afterwards, other Tirian nobles occasionally remarked that the Dragonfiends had the unusual advantage of possessing ancestral wealth for which no peasant had originally been taxed.
The Civil War
During the Tirian Civil War, House Dragonfiend supported the man who would become the first King of Tir.
Their contribution was sufficiently important that the house emerged from the conflict closely associated with the establishment of the monarchy itself. Later Dragonfiends were therefore able to claim something rather more substantial than simple loyalty to the Crown: their ancestors had helped create it.
This relationship did not, however, develop into unquestioning obedience.
The Imperial Wars
The clearest example came during the Imperial Wars.
When Tir entered what became a war of aggression, Orla Dragonfiend was the only Tirian noble to oppose the war openly.
Her objections placed her against both the government and much of the Tirian nobility at a time when doing so carried considerably more consequences than merely becoming unpopular at dinner.
When the war ended, that same opposition became useful.
Orla was selected as one of Tir's principal peace negotiators, being one of the few senior Tirian figures able to approach negotiations without having personally championed the conflict. Her role in the settlement restored some of Tir's damaged credibility abroad and added another episode to the family's irritating habit of being vindicated after making themselves deeply unpopular.
Reputation
House Dragonfiend has traditionally been associated with wealth, stubbornness and political independence.
Their enormous inherited fortune meant that Dragonfiend nobles were less dependent upon royal favour than many of their peers. This occasionally made them valuable allies and frequently made them difficult subjects.
Members of the house are expected to defend Tir, but the family's history draws a distinction between loyalty to Tir and obedience to whoever happens to govern it.
Arms
The arms of House Dragonfiend depict a black dragon wounded by a sword, commemorating the deed from which the house derives its name and fortune.
The dragon is not merely a generic heraldic beast. Within the family it is explicitly understood to represent the Black Dragon, while the sword and drops of blood commemorate its death.