The Imperial House of Charlotte is an important historical noble house of the Ryccian Empire.

History

The Charlottes were first established over 4,000 years ago, after the sister of the Emperor of that time, Charlotte, was granted the title of “Grand Duchess of Constantinople”. She was the first Governor of the new colony of Constantinople, which was the first planet Ryccia colonized after Daonlathas.

Over the centuries, the non-hereditary descendants of this house were given lesser noble titles. As a result, almost all of the local nobility in Constantinople are actually cadet branches of the House of Charlotte or are otherwise related to them in some way, and they look up to them with great esteem.

Even after the family left the official post of Governor of the planet, the House of Charlotte continued to be influential, being one of the main political families at the autocratic Imperial Court, having many military and political positions, and holding various businesses and assets in their home world and abroad. The family owns significant stakes in major investments, banks and companies of the Core and elsewhere under the Imperial Charlotte Group, one of the wealthiest companies in the Ryccian Empire. Moreover, some Charlottes continue the now-defunct tradition of enlisting in the military as officers, but with the fully meritocratic system in place, they are not as common as they were in the higher ranks thousands of years ago.

The family has distant relatives and noble possessions in other planets in the Core. The House of Charlotte-Anoreta in the planet of Anoreta in the Farlands is the only official branch of the family that lives outside the Core and that regularly interacts with the main house. All other relatives are illegitimate, descendants of expelled members in the past, descendants of migrants to far-flung regions of the Empire, and/or migrated so far in antiquity that these cadet branches have no relation to them anymore.

Although most of its cadet branches have dropped this tradition, the Charlottes continue to be one of the few Latinoid families that exist. The Latinoids are noble families that practice the ancient literary art of utilizing the Latin language, and this aristocratic custom is fading into irrelevance nowadays.

Trivia

The Charlottes are some of the closest friends of the Arzix family, the Royal Family of the Empire. This is due to their ancestral ties dating back millennia. Due to the fact that these two houses are so distantly related by blood in the present, the Arzix and the Charlottes are known to marry each other.