Editing House Orlock (section)

==History==
House Orlock was always a mining powerhouse, controlling the supply of metals to the entire hive. Their greatest rivalry was with [[House Delaque]], a result of sabotaging House Delaque and stealing the lucrative contract that it once had with Noble House Ulanti.

The relaunch edition expands on this by revealing that they only got this far because their founder managed to find a massive trove of archaeotech in a crashed ship. Rather than blow it all on hookers and drugs, this madlad decided to use all this money to secure his clan's future. From here, Orlock grouped together a band of merry outcasts from various prospecting families and decided to take down '''House Orlund''', the then-eminent mining leaders of Necromunda. The alliance that Orlock pulled together waged war on House Orlund, initially just damaging them carefully with raids and guerilla tactics, making sure that even though they were damaged, the merchants and upper houses were still getting their cuts. Orlund pleaded to '''House Helmawr''' for assistance but was told that this was an internal matter and the Orlunds needed to sort their own shit out as long as the [[Imperial Tithe|Tithe]] wasn't affected (which the Orlocks were making sure not to do). Eventually House Orlund was betrayed from within as one of the Lord's heiresses married an Orlock, uniting the Houses and solidifying the Orlocks as the lead mining authority.

Unfortunately this also led to the Orlocks and their allies becoming decadent. As the years passed and their reputation solidified, those families that were once mere laborers became spoiled and inept nobles who couldn't even perform a simple task without asking their slaves to do so. The other noble houses sought to crush this nouveau riche house through logistical means while Orlock's laborers began rising up against their oppressors. Not really understanding what was going on, the Orlock leaders sent an army to deal with the malcontents, but since the rebels had control over the mines and therefore the finances of the House, they were able to [[Not as Planned|outbid their masters for their own army]]. Ironically, Orlock pleaded to House Helmawr for assistance, but was told that this was an internal matter and the Orlocks needed to sort their own shit out as long as it didn't affect the [[Imperial Tithe|Tithe]].

The rebellion lasted almost a millennia as the other Clan Houses quietly sent support to the rebels to keep it going. Eventually House Orlock was betrayed from within when a younger generation of the decadent Orlock nobility decided to actually do something clever: they set themselves up out in the ash wilds and claimed they were the "True Orlocks". They struck deals with the rebel leaders and promised them all a place in the new order and then helped them to overthrow their own forebears.

What resulted was a far stronger House Orlock, more attached to its origins and built on a massive deception: the promise that [[Noblebright|"everyone has a place"]] turned out to be just another measure of control.

All members of the Clan House are eligible for promotion to the gangs if they are worthy enough, but the only judge of worth comes from the gangs themselves, meaning that a whole new class of citizen arose, one that the lower classes looked up to and eagerly clamoured for their attention as well as acting as a buffer to the new house nobility. The gangs' rebelliousness and freedoms were promoted, if only to give the drudging classes something to aspire to.

Likewise, ''all'' members of the Clan House all the way down to the lowest crippled slaves are permitted to use one of the founding family names to represent their status as citizens... except that they're still treated as slaves and they have to shorten that name to avoid association with actual members of the family; so instead of "Orlock" or "Cinderjack" you get "Lock" or "Jack".

But with the new regime came a sense of kinship and determination, where everyone is told that they "matter" and that they've worked hard for whatever meagre perks they've earned-- so they'll be damned if they are ever going to give it all up. The title of the "House of Iron" taking on a totally new meaning.