House of Prension

House of Prension is the story of Aulic Prension, the fourteen-year-old younger son of Empress Landau.

The Prension dynasty rules over a remote region on Merva, a pre-industrial world in which heirs to the throne must master revered rites. As Aulic faces his Maturity Rituals, he must cope with the resentments of his older, peevish brother, Bodin, a stickler for decorum and protocol. Unlike Bodin, Aulic takes a skeptical attitude to tradition and the brothers’ radically different personalities set them up for an inevitable rivalry.

Aulic faces his greatest challenge when he accidentally ruins a fishing ritual, casting disgrace on himself. Angered, Bodin schemes with his court allies to set Aulic an even greater challenge. The younger heir must journey to the land of the hated Frissen and prove his diplomatic worthiness. Aulic faces a range of unexpected obstacles, including the nonsensically chanting Roundsongs, the beetle-like race of recalcitrant Jabbs and the relentlessly perky fungus sprite Mempy Pinpin. The end of his journey brings him to a face-off with spiteful Emperor Ogo Frissen where Aulic must use his wits to survive.