House Dvora
House Dvora (also known as the House of the Devouring Hounds) was the oldest Newblood Great House. Despite its moderate size, it was a cornerstone of the six ruling Houses during the War in Heaven.
The "Devouring Hounds" title referred to the controlled dominance of a pack leader rather than the wild savagery of the followers. Dvora was an "alpha male" house. Its most notorious members were the Imperator and the War King, both of whom led precedent-setting Presidencies. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
During her escape from prison, Cousin Shuncucker burned down the secret minutes of House Dvora, which were kept in the records library's "Scarlet Chapterhouse" collection. (AUDIO: A Labyrinth of Histories) The Prydonian Chapter was the Chapterhouse associated with the colour scarlet; (TV: The Deadly Assassin, The Five Doctors) Romana, a member of Prydon, (PROSE: Shada, The Shadows of Avalon) once called herself "Inheritor of House Dvora". (AUDIO: Panacea)
Percy Shelley's dream-inspired 1819 poem The Mask of Anarchy originally contained a reference to Dvora:
I met Murder on the way -
He had a mask like Dvora -
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him...
The Book of the War commented that, since the translation of House names into English was imprecise, the pronounciation of "dev-or-ay", though non-standard, wasn't unreasonable. Shelley later replaced the apparent nonsense word with the name of his political opponent, the Viscount Castlereigh. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
Behind the scenes
- It is likely that House Dvora was so named in The Book of the War in order to imply that Romanadvoratrelundar was one of its members. A line in A Labyrinth of Histories suggests that House Dvora is linked to the Prydonian Chapter, which Romana was identified as belonging to in The Shadows of Avalon. This link was confirmed in the audio story Panacea.
