House Members:
Rosalor, Lady Bahlmis
Lord Talaren Bahlmis
Drew Bahlmis
Treasa Bahlmis
Dr Lucas Bahlmis
Dr Olivia Bahlmis-Greywood
Phyllda Bahlmis, Mother Superior of the Convent of the Sacred Heart

Off-World Bahlmis:
Lord Basil Mederes-Bahlmis
Michael Reams Caederelle

House Associates:
Nestor Bullfinch
Tomin
Jasper
Carmen

About the House
Emblem: Pantera (The Panther)
Responsibilities: Trade
Heraldic symbol: A panther rampant on a crest argent; at the top and to the left a red and white square bearing the letter B.
Colours: Red and sky-blue with white stripes.
Motto: The Panther roared and the people awoke.
Symbolizes: Audacity

History of the House
A Tale of the Fall and Rise of House Bahlmis

Rosalor, Lady Bahlmis
Born: 3443

As a Bahlmis daughter, Rosalor was initially expected to make an advantageous marriage, but that didn't work out very well; she was not pretty enough, and far too intelligent, to appeal to the right sort of male.  Nor could she make much of a go at the family business, being hopeless at the accounting end of things. Finally she was packed off to the Women's College, where she found her calling as a scholar and remained there for almost forty years:  first as a student, then as a Fellow, and finally as Professor of Classics.  (N.B.:  "Classics," on Aquila, does not mean what it does on Earth [as a field of study]:  it includes the literature of the Greek and Roman world but also includes the Great Works of (Western) Earth culture -- those that have survived the centuries -- up to the discovery of space travel.)

Rosalor was not precisely happy with the turn of events -- the failed coup staged by most of the senior males of her House -- that suddenly made her the head of the Bahlmis family, with its attendant responsibilities and the concomitant necessity of leaving her post at the College.  However, as the daughter of a Great House, family responsibilities came first.  She brought to the rebuilding of House Bahlmis all the intensity of focus that she had heretofore devoted to her studies.  In this she had the help of her nephew Talaren and various of the other more remote Bahlmis connections, but the House as a whole had been too decimated to maintain control of the trading monopoly that was their traditional role in Aquilan society.

The rehabilitation of House Bahlmis, therefore, might aptly be characterized as a =succes d'estime.=  Under Rosalor's leadership, the House has rebuilt its integrity and reputation, but the actual business interests have been largely passed on to the minor Houses that nominally look to Bahlmis (e.g. House Lasse).  It is still counted as one of the "Great Houses" but this is mostly by courtesy (very much like Aquila's place in the Imperial Council).  Much of the family property was sold off, leaving a modest country estate and the Bahlmis town house.  The town house is the setting for the weekly =soirees,= hosted by Rosalor, that are a centerpiece of the intellectual and social life of the capital.

Lord Talaren Bahlmis
Born: 3472

Talaren Bahlmis was born in exile on the planet Caelocanth.  A year before his birth his father (a younger son of Vladimir, Lord Bahlmis) had been accused of treason and sent into lifelong exile, together with his young wife. They invested their assets in Caelocanth, a primnitive world belonging to the Do No Harm Charter Planets - a group of planets within the Empire that rely totally on the natural planetary environment.

Talaren grew up here until he was fifteen - when his parents were killed in an accident.  At this point he first (briefly) visited Aquila, disliking most of the Bahlmises he met, but beginning a long friendship with his aunt Rosalor.  Subsequently he returned to Caelocanth, studied there and offworld, eventually gaining a doctorate in extra terrestrial planetary economics, and becoming a leading authority on the development of natural worlds.  He has served several terms as Chairman of the Federation of Charter Worlds.  This called for his attendance at various Galactic Conferences, and academic symposium throughout the galaxy (although, in the last twenty-five years, he has cut back on this).

When the Bahlmis coup was defeated and Rosalor succeeded as Lady Bahlmis, Talaren was was one of the nephews she summoned home.  Once sure that the House was clear of fines and debts, he was able to invest some of his own money to help restore the fortunes of the House.  This money comes in part from his academic writings, but more largely from a successful series of semi-autobiographical novels about a young boy growing up on a charter world, written under the name of Tal Pantera.

Drew Bahlmis
Born:

More information about Drew will appear shortly.

Treasa Bahlmis
Born: 3500

Perhaps she should be despondent angry. Certainly anyone who had lost their mother when they were still a babe would be entitled to those emotions. Or perhaps angry would be more appropriate. After all her father had died as well just a little over two years ago. One might think resentment would suit her. How could it not considering her only remaining family member, her older brother, had tried to keep her from fulfilling her father's last wish?

Remarkably, Treasa Bahlmis was none of those things. A smile was nearly ever present on her pretty lips. Her bright blue eyes sparked with joy and intense passion. Her dark blonde hair was sun streaked from her love of the outdoors. There was always a bounce in her step and an ease to her manner that made others comfortable in her presence. She has a gift for seeing the good in any situation.

Gifts often have a downside however. Treasa can be very naive. She is naturally trusting. Because of that she falls prey easily to those who would do her harm. For most of her life, both her father and her brother have managed to protect her. It has not always been an easy task for them. The girl can be quite stubborn when she puts her mind to it.

This last quality she demonstrated quite clearly when, on her twenty fifth birthday, she emptied her bank accounts and set out for Aquila, alone. She told no one of her plans. A simple note was left behind for her brother,"I've left to fulfill our promise and discover my dreams ~ Treasa". Her father's final wish was for his children to return to his homeland, his beloved Aquila, in his name. Treasa, armed with only a few empty notebooks and her dreams, was going to do just that.

Dr Lucas Bahlmis:
Born 3469

Dr. Lucas takes his Hippocratic oath seriously, and cares very much for his patients, regardless of their affiliation. Further to this, Lucas has been taught little-known medical properties for many of the native Aquilan plantlife, making him very knowledgeable about such matters. He also has learned to a higher level the use of oriental healing arts, such as acupunture, and shiatzu.  While learning these herbalist skills deep within the undeveloped areas of Aquila, he was away from home for three or four years.  He returned to find his House deeply mired in a failed coup, and Duke Atropos assassinated.

Lucas favorably impressed both Lady Bahlmis and Lord Anderon, and soon became personal physician to the widowed Duchess, Lilly.  He also tutored his young cousin Olivia and supported her in her medical studies.  He currently helps her run her hospital in Aquila city.

Dr. Olivia Bahlmis-Greywood
Born: 3484

More information about Olivia will appear shortly.

Phyllida Bahlmis, Mother of the Convent of the Sacred Heart

Picture of Phyllida as a young postulant. More information about her will appear shortly.

Basil Mederes-Bahlmis

Basil Mederes was born into a merchant family, his mother a Bahlmis (Rosalor's younger sister Glemma) who had married into the family to cement commercial ties.  He was raised on Alice Station, a space port which served as a central hub for traders crossing the Empire.

His parents held an important position in the Mederes family, but it wasn't exactly on the fast track to executive success, and Basil grew up expecting to be nothing more than a mid-level functionary, unless he managed to find an opportunity.

Nevertheless, he worked hard at his training, and showed a real aptitude for it.  Along the way, he learned that knowledge may be power, but it's also money, and developed an appetite for learning of all sorts.  He sucks up data like a black hole, even if that does sometimes get him in trouble.  Still, he never saw the golden opportunity he'd been waiting for.  Until the day he received a message from Aquila...  He promptly tacked Bahlmis onto the end of his name and hitched a ride on one of the family ships, getting himself named the Mederes rep on Aquila.

In some ways, Basil is worldly indeed, being at least passingly familiar with every form of decadence to come through Alice Station ... which was most of them.  In other ways, he is rather naive, never having set foot on a planet's surface, and never having dealt with any society beyond that of the businessmen eagerly scrambling for the last jot of profit or the pilots who blew all their money whenever they came into port.

Basil's considerable business acumen might have gone a long way toward setting House Bahlmis on its feet again and enabling it to hold on to its trade monopoly on Aquila, but unfortunately it soon became clear that his station-bred immune system was not up to the task.  Plagued by one illness after another, Basil eventually took his (regretful) leave of Aquila and his Bahlmis relations, though he still keeps in touch by correspondence.

Michael Ream Caederelle

Born and bred in Gehenna, Michael Ream-Caedelle quickly began to show a proficiency for Politics and Economics.  Apparently not merely a product of his expensive education, this ability increased to striking levels in his mid-teens, along with his fencing.  He quickly got a name for never losing sight of his goals, but his political career was somewhat shadowed when speculations about his legitimacy arose.  A dirt-seeking hunt by one of his rivals came up short when an unknown phenomenon caused the deletion of all related files from the computers of Gehenna, whilst any hard copies also went missing.

All that can be ascertained for certain is that his mother, Genevieve Bahlmis, fell pregnant with him whilst on a diplomatic mission with her father Jonathon.  Jonathon died while on Gehenna and Genevieve thereafter lost touch with her Aquilan kin; until Michael showed up, it was believed she had died at the same time as her father.  Michael claims that his parents were married but is evasive about his father's whereabouts and continued existence.

His nickname (rarely said to his face), 'The Brilliant Bastard' arose inevitably from this controversy, but a few carefully chosen litigations and one or two inexplicable accidents have
generally ensured that this topic rarely surfaces.

Eventually, news of a possible windfall in Aquila reached his ears, bringing one of Gehenna's most ruthless aristocrats back home.  His reception was mixed, however, and he did not stay long, presumably deciding that a decimated House, whatever its prestige, did not precisely count as a windfall.  His current whereabouts are unknown.

Nestor Bullfinch

More information about Nestor, general factotum for Bahlmis, will appear shortly.

Tomin

More information about Tomin will appear shortly.

Jasper

More information about Jasper will appear shortly.

Carmen

More information about Carmen will appear shortly.