Editing Setting:Tri-Sector (section)

=====Mercantile Noble House Ritria, Oglith=====
In the Cloudburst Sector, the supply lines of the overstressed Adeptus Mechanicus often prevent the timely installation of resources needed for large-scale construction. Full colony ventures are usually spared this, but land development can be time-consuming and costly on those worlds that lack an industrial base. House Ritria is a collection of nobles, related by marriage, that have stepped into the gap. The House pools its resources and funds construction firms, most originally based on Oglith, and buys them mass transit with their equipment to worlds that need them.

House Ritria is a far looser House than most. Oglith has very little aristocracy, thanks to its origins as a fairly high-tech Frontier World. As a result, its Houses are more like extended Clans, of the Thimblan sort, than a traditional Imperial peerage. The House Ritria concerns were not originally trans-stellar at all, but confined to the Rampart system. Eventually, however, the construction firms that the House patronized grew so wealthy that they were able to pay back all of the House’s investments. Rather than cut the firms loose, the House used their new glut of money to buy passage on a freighter to Hangonne, where they were able to corner several construction niches immediately with their great wealth and experience.

Ever since then, Ritria has been an odd duck among the many noble Houses that sponsor industrial or service corporations in the Cloudburst Sector. They stay well out of the way of Sector politics, preferring to spend as little time politicking as possible to get the job done and stay profitable. They work well with the other Noble Houses, and spend their money promptly, rather than hoarding it forever. The House has also been able to score lucrative construction contracts with those planetary governments that are uninterested in playing ball with the Mechanicus for metalwork and masonry.

House Ritria is the only authorized user of Maskos machines outside of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Maskos government not under Administratum control. Officially, the House does not use slaves. Unofficially, their lower-level employees could well be called slaves for how little money they make. The construction firms that House Ritria employs often make use of teams of indentured servants and people working off debts that the company purchased from their creditors.