Philanthropenos

Summary
The house of Philanthropenos was one of the most influential dynasties in the Empire of Gráikon. From their rise to power in the 18th century to the dissolution of the empire in 1907, the family played a crucial part both in domestic and international affairs.

Beginnings
The family's ancestry can be traced back to the year 1483. According to the family's own chronicles, the founding father of house, Iohannes Philanthropenos, served as a councilor to the Kurios of Miletus. In that capacity, Iohannes oversaw the reconstruction of the region's commercial shipyards.

As demand for warships increased significantly during the Lydian Sucession Crisis, the Milesian shipyards were confiscated by the crown and repurposed into military facilities. Due to Iohannes' role in the initial reconstruction, the royal envoys hired his services to assist the transition and acquaint the royal envoys with regional suppliers.

Rise to power
After the end of the conflict, Iohannes was granted a coat of arms in acknowledgement of his services. More importantly, he and his newly formed house were asked to oversee the construction of further shipyards around Miletus. His descendants followed in Iohannes footsteps and eventually became landed nobility in 1628. From that point onward, the name Philanthrepos became more and more synonymous with the production of both military and commercial ships.

Their influence was significant enough for the head of the family to be receive the title of strategos epi tas symmorias. This privilege effectively granted the house a state-monopoly on producing warships for the Graikonian Navy.

Gunboat Diplomacy
With the advent of industrialized shipbuilding and a paradigm shift towards steam-propelled ironclad warships in the early 19th century, governments across the globe were forced into massive technological investments. This was especially severe in the case of Gráikos, who heavily relied on their fleet to project their power across the Mesogeios and the Suez channel in Egypt.

However, the modernization efforts were interrupted by the outbreak of the Three Years' War. After suffering a devastating defeat against the combined naval forces of Albion and Etruria during the Syrakian conflict in 1856, Gráikos was forced to severely cut down on their fleet and also relinquish control over Cyprus.

Fall from grace
More importantly for the house of Philanthropenos, the poor performance of the navy led to accusations of misconduct and corruption on the part of the strategos. As a result, the title was formally abolished and control of the Graikonian Navy returned to the throne for the first time in almost four hundred years.

This upheaval shook the entire dynasty to their core and effectively condemned the house to an existence on the fringes of Graikonian politics. Without imperial grants, they were forced establish new sources of revenue. Through several decades of arduous negotiations during the family's tenure as the nation's naval authority, they were first-hand witnesses to the decline of nobility in favor of industrialism. As a consequence, the family used both their experience and business networks to set foot into a market they believed to be highly prospective.

Modern Greek Fire
Even though the usage of naval mines was still highly experimental at that time, the family pooled their remaining fortune into establishing exclusive contracts with suppliers and to hire some of the most internationally renown naval engineers. After several years of research, the Philanthropenos conglomerate was finally able to publicly present a working prototype of this new weapon to the Gráikonian admiralty.

Naturally, the presentation was met with skepticism and regarded as a futile attempt by a waning dynasty to restore their fortune. However, the demonstration quickly proved the devastating effect of the mines – even on capital ships. The Gráikonian admirality, initially reluctant to adjust their doctrine, quickly realized that these new weapons would irrevocably change the face of naval warfare. As such, the government subsequently funded the production and field-testing of the first mass-produced naval mine in history. However, the Philanthropenos conglomerate's leadership took great care to closely guard the formula behind the explosives. As the family had not forgotten indignations of the past, their relationship with the Gráikonian government remained strenuous, at best.

New Investments
Mihail Philanthrepos, who had risen to become the new head of the house, was well aware that his family wouldn't be able to keep the priced formula to themselves forever. As such, he set in motion several contingency plans – most importantly a heavy investment into development of the Suez channel, which at this point was still by and large administered by the empire of Gráikon.

However, tides of war once again put the ambitions of house of Philanthrepos to a test. Rising tensions over control of the channel led to an armed insurgency in Port Thalassa. Even though the Gráikonian Government denied any involvement, the fact that several sets of Gráikonian-made naval mines were deployed in the channel led to international outcry and clearly painted the empire as aggressor.

Thalassian War
What started out as a regional incident quickly developed into a full-scale war. In the end, almost every country with access to the Mesogeios became involved, culminating into what is today known as Thalassian War. This resulted in yet another devastating military defeat for the Empire of Gráikon.

As a result of the Treaty of Split, the nation was forced to cede all of their colonial possessions, including vital holdings in North Afrike. Once again, the Philanthrepos family became the target of heavy scrutiny. A preliminary report by the royal high commissioner stated that the mines deployed in the Suez channel were black-market products illegitimately sold by the Philanthropenos.

An official inquiry was set to investigate this matter of affairs. The inquiry's members never got to meet, however, as the political foundation of the country was shaken to the core, yet again.

A debt long overdue
This time, though, the issues were primarily of a domestic, albeit revolutionary nature. In the ensuing civil war, house Philanthrepos was one of the first noble families to condemn the "rampant abuse of power" by the central government. As such, it is assumed that the revolutionary forces received significant amounts of supplies and military equipment.

Regardless of whether this holds true, several key members of the dynasty were detained by the Gráikonian secret police and questioned for several weeks. Mihail Philanthrepos, in his function as the family's head, eventually confessed to funding revolutionary forces and was thus proclaimed guilty of high treason. He was summarily executed by a firing squad on the day after.

Contrary to the intended effect, the execution did not deter other noble houses from cooperating with revolutionary forces. In fact, most of the other houses publicly condemned the government. Fearing for their own safety, they published a collective letter, demanding that both the Basileus and his government resign immediately and transfer power to a Noble Assembly.

For the house of Philanthrepos, the death of their house's head quickly turned into a massive boost in their public perception. Both the revolutionary forces and the nobility pushed a narrative of Mihail Philanthrepos dying as a martyr, freedom fighter and "a true Greek". Even though Mihail had been a member of the nobility, the revolutionary committee declared him a Tyrannoktones and promised full amnesty for every member of house Philanthrepos.

Ionia, eternally
After the battle of Thebes and the subsequent proclamation of the Ionian's People Union, members of the nobility were formally stripped of their ranks, privileges and formal holdings. For most of the dynasties, the event marked an end to centuries of relative power. The house of Philanthrepos, however, had supported the revolution from an early point and thus received extended privileges. A large part of the dynasty's influential members assumed senior positions within the newly founded government, albeit under new identities. What's more, the events of the previous fifty years had also forced the leadership of the house to repeatedly adapt and tap into additional forms of revenue.

The combination of both factors led the members of the Philanthropenos to quickly establish themselves in crucial governmental positions and entrench themselves within the inner circles of the Secretariats. To this day, the extent of the family's influence in current politics remains unclear.