House Tern
House Tern is a family, not a legal dynasty: Mara holds an elected office and her children inherit no seat.
A family in the present
House Tern is a family, not a legal dynasty: Mara holds an elected office and her children inherit no seat. The family’s old ferry concessions nevertheless give it influence other citizens cannot match. Its members must decide whether a republic can accept useful expertise without turning it into hereditary power.
Eight voices
Oldren Tern — retired ferryman. Hessa Tern — cooperative miller. Mara Tern — first speaker. Jori Tern — gate inspector. Saren Tern — school printer. Lysa Tern — granary schoolteacher. Perrin Tern — irrigation mechanic. Anet Tern — orchard apprentice.
The family is shown as three generations. Birth years use the Hearth Reckoning; the present year is 684. Marriage joins households without erasing the married partner’s earlier life.
Anet grafts plum branches and keeps a diary of flowering dates beside the family’s political arguments.
Lysa asks children to count names on memorials because history should survive simple arithmetic.
Perrin learned to repair clock escapements using scrap from confiscated estate machinery.
Oldren carried grain barons for pay and hunger strikers without it.
Saren prints Assembly minutes on cheap orchard-fiber paper and leaves space for corrections.
Hessa organized the mill shifts that kept the strike kitchens supplied.