Great Families

In the Beaten Lands universe, the Great Families are three powerful families that allied with the Constructors at the time of the initial Incursions nearly a century ago, the Morani, the Scuumi, and the Cariti. In exchange for land to rule over and Constructor-make technology, the Great Families voluntarily turned against their own people, doing anything the Constructors required to supplicate the population and speed up the transition. After a period of uneasy alliance, the Constructors added an additional reward: a pocket universe to rule over for whichever family could survive out of the three, destroying the other two. At once, wars of incredible violence began springing up between the three families, with alliances shifting and breaking constantly. Eventually, the Cariti family was wiped out, and the Morani and Scuumi fell on each other like animals, fighting bitterly to this day.

The Great Families in the Trodden Place

In the alternate reality of the Trodden Place, the three Great Families are known as the Maronee Kin (analogous to the Morani Family), the Odiusee Kin (analogous to the Scuumi Family), and the Aalmsonee Kin {analogous to the Cariti Family.) They each control the civic corporations of their respective cities, which gather, manage, and distribute the scarce resources of the Trodden Place.