A noble family born with immense psionic potential, the Mandreth bloodline is old and powerful, not only politically and financially, but mentally as well. Each blood relative in the Mandreth family is born with the latent ability to manifest a single 1st level power and possesses two racial bonus power points. The House of Mandreth is actually the descendents of the bloodline that gave birth to Cynfire, who became the godmind of psychokinesis. The inborn psionic power of Cynfire passed generation to generation in the family and, although none of his descendants could match his power, most, if not all, have unusual psionic talent not normally seen in others.
Base of Operations: The Mandreth family is based out of Mandreth Castle, which is neither a sprawling estate nor a tiny fort. Due to the naturally psionic nature of the family, over the years, the castle has been fortified with defenses of a psionic persuasion, particularly in traps that utilize fire energy. In times of hostility, these traps have literally been life-savers for the family.
Alignment: LG
Size: Several dozen direct relatives, with hundreds of servants and guards.
Members: The House of Mandreth has twenty-two direct blood descendants, as well as over a hundred servants, employees, and agents. Most of the relatives are aristocrats or experts, although there are several psions within the family.
Symbol: A flickering flame signet ring is the symbol of the Mandreth family, in homage to the progenitor of the family.
Motto: “The power of fire flows through our veins.”
Description: Centuries ago, the child Cynfire, originally named Davon, was a prodigy of psychokinetic talent. The child was able to easily manipulate energy and bend it to his will. As Davon grew, his power grew at an even faster rate. At some point, Davon sired a son, although it is not known if Davon knew of his offspring. While the son was also talented in psychokinetic ability, it was not to the extreme ability that his father possessed.
The progeny of Davon grew to found the House of Mandreth, passing the latent ability of Davon down through the generations. Every few generations, a descendant will be born with an exceptional talent for the psionic arts, although every descendant of Davon is born with some psionic talent. Typically, this talent is in the psychokinetic discipline, but there have been cases where members of the Mandreth bloodline have had strong telepathic, clairsentient, or psychometabolic power.
In the past century, there have been few such prodigies within the Mandreth family, although Garret and Willem Mandreth show potential. The bloodline may have thinned or the trend may simply have skipped a few more generations than normal. Whatever the case, the House of Mandreth is expecting one of their ilk to be born or develop a strong psionic talent soon. The truth of the exceptional children of the line of Davon is that Mandron, the first child of Davon, a powerful seidmadr, uses his own offspring as replacement bodies when his current form is reaching the end of its allotted years. Willem Mandreth has suspicion that such is the case, although he has not been able to prove it.
Joining: It is only possible to join the House of Mandreth by either marrying a descendant or being born into the family. Those who marry into the family do not gain the benefit of an in-born psionic power.
Duties: The duties of members of the House of Mandreth are rather minimal. Eldest sons are expected to be trained in ruling their portion of the family and all members are expected to learn to control their own psionic talent. Overall, the family has a strong belief in following the law and will attempt to rehabilitate members of the family who violate the law. Very rarely, lawbreaking members of the House of Mandreth have been disowned by the family and turned into the local law enforcement agency.
Benefits: Those born into the House of Mandreth gain the Child of Mandreth feat as a bonus feat. Typically, the powers gained are of the psychokinesis discipline, but it is not unheard of for powers of other disciplines to be passed by the blood of Mandreth. If a member of the House of Mandreth later gains levels in a manifesting class, add the power granted from membership to the member’s list of powers known.
ORGANIZATIONAL FEAT:
Child of Mandreth [Psionic]
You are of the Mandreth bloodline, gaining innate psionic potential.
Prerequisites: Descended of the Mandreth family
Benefit: You gain the ability to manifest a single first-level psionic power and also gain 2 power points.
Special: This feat may only be taken at 1st level. In addition, Child of Mandreth counts as Psionic Talent for purposes of the power points gained from taking Psionic Talent.
