The 4 Great Houses of Ishgard and their responsibilties

I understand each Great House are all responsible to protect Ishgard at all costs, but it seems each house have a specialized task in which their responsibile of. On the tope of my mind they're

Fortemps
Symbol: Unicorn
Responsibilities: Cavalry?

Dzmael
Symbol: Tower/Fort
Responsibilities: From what I remember in the MCH storyline, the Dzmael's are skilled at and responsible for making buildings such as Forts, the buildings in Ishgard ... Dzmael Darkhold, etc. Due to that they seem to have the most influence of 4 Great Houses.

Hailenarte
Symbol: Rose
Responsibilities: They are currently responsible for Skysteel Manufactury which means they're tasked with creation/research of arms, technology, armory, machina. I am not sure if they were "demoted" to that role due to their great failure/lost of __Vigil

Durendaire
Symbol: Bell
Responsibilities: Head of the AST guild ....which makes their Bell make more sense ... warning bells?

Anyone know what each House are responsible for?

Durendaire has the most influence, I thought? From all the quests involving them, I got that they seemed proud to have the most funds, wider sphere of influence and better soldiers. They also had control over Stone Vigil, lost it twice and still remained financially and militarily secure versus Haillenarte. They're also in control of both Astrology buildings, with the one in C. Coerthas formerly being under Haillenarte jurisdiction. Also, though Falcon's Nest is a Durendaire/Dzaemal project, Western Coerthas is basically Durendaire territory, cause I haven't seen any dzaemal npcs.

I assume Dusk Vigil was theirs too, but given the name...

Dzaemal, though... Not much is known about them.

I'm not too sure the Darkhold was built by House Dzemael... That portcullis at the front? Sure. The rest? Doesn't that all strike you as slightly too Dravanian is style? The round doors especially, where are they used in modern Ishgardian architecture? Nowhere. Then there's the age of the place... And fact that a nasty Voidsent statue was waiting to be woken... Some of the more open sections you can see more bridges going off to other places, and the whole area kind of reminds me of a gloomy, claustrophobic version of Mourn... Then there is the Knight's Quarter... Notice those stone/web like formations? After going through the Aery, you know what that reminds me of? A Dragons nest... A really old, forgotten one, but that's what it looks like... I really suspect The Nail to have been a significant location for Dravanians, similar to Mourn and Sohm Al...

I really don't think Dzemael built the place, I think they rediscovered it. Can't imagine the formation of the modern Holy See was a smooth one, while we know some of the Twelve Knights simply decided to (effectively) retire, would their families willingly give up their position as well? I can picture early "heretics" fighting back against the new Four Houses rule, with the Darkhold perhaps being where some retreated to try and survive, even calling upon Voidsent for help (which might seem unlikely until you realize the Vault had the Holy See summoning Voidsent as well...). In order to rewrite history, Ishgard pretend the place never even existed, a thousand years later House Dzemael rediscovers the caves and decided to repurpose them, right before Batraal wakes up and the Garleans surprise them...

Doesn't really mean Dzemael isn't responsible for most of the construction in Ishgard, but that just further damns the Darkhold as not their own; None of the construction in Ishgard resembles Darkhold at all. The only place that comes close to resembling Darkhold are the ruins in Dravania...

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Originally Posted by Dalvy

Durendaire has the most influence, I thought?

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The four High Houses are, politically speaking, equal above the rest of the city-state, but within their own ranks rise and fall in influence based on achievements and contributions. House Dzemael puts a lot of focus on developing fortifications, which dramatically adds to their wealth and influence. However, the Count de Dzemael is also quite cozy with Count de Durendaire, whose forces are often on the front lines, which means that Dzemael also shares in the glory of military victory. Compounding this, we've heard little in the way of House Dzemael getting too entangled in embarrassing losses against the Horde, dishonorable failures on the battlefield, or heretical corruption in the ranks.

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Originally Posted by Stephaniven

Thus [does House Dzemael] stand at the peak of Ishgardian society, looking down their noses at any who do not share their “noble” pedigree.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

I really don't think Dzemael built the place, I think they rediscovered it.

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Not a bad theory! I can clear up a few of those details, too. The Holy See has long been aware that a system of caverns sprawls throughout most of Coerthas. House Dzemael was tasked with developing the internal system in such a way that multiple entrances could be sealed as a fortifications, but still connect to others without vulnerability from the skies. It was like an underground system of Vigils, in theory, allowing them to make use of the caves while circumventing the whole "a cave is a grave" thing in times of war.

Because of the size of the cavern system, it's only natural that some sections end up coinciding with the path of the aetherial rivers that pervade the realm. In these sections, crystals are known to develop naturally in great quantities, and the veil between the corporeal world and the void gets thinner - even porous - in some sections. This was the problem for Dzemael; the membrane thinned too much in a section of development and voidsent began to come through. Miners of House Dzemael were excavating an area when they stumbled across a gargoyle - Batraal - who they assumed to be a statue (since, like Vodoriga, Gargoyles can turn to stone). Thinking they'd found some artifact, they started excavating the area until Batraal came to life and slaughtered the team as a host of voidsent came pouring through. Before the knights could rally soldiers to clear the Darkhold, however, the place was stormed by Imperials.

So, on one hand you've got the idea that House Dzemael was indeed developing that section of the Darkhold... but the unfinished versions of the 1.0 dungeons had very similar constructions in them even where they didn't appear to be recently developed at all. I'll keep an eye out, you could be on to something.