How many Dunmer Houses are there?

WhiteCoatSyndrome

There are of course six five Great Houses - Hlaalu, Redoran, Telvanni, Indoril, and Dres and Dagoth. But we know there are more, because Hlaalu eventually gets replaced with House Sadras. So how many non-Great Houses are there?

Ratzkifal

There is also House Sotha of which Sotha Sil is the last living member. Back in the day some people refered to the Dwemer as House Dwemer. There are probably far more minor houses, but they are all of little importance as they don't get politically involved, are pawns of a Great House or have just too little influence to be noteworthy outside their community.

elias.stormneb18_ESO

Generally, every major family is a House. The Great Houses consist of many minor Houses, the number of which are unknown.

resdayn00

If we assume that every Dunmer family that had any importance was a house itself, then the ancestral tombs of Vvardenfell (probably mainland Morrowind too) could give us an answer. I don’t know if there is a distinction between house/family in their culture though. Even if there is, it’s hard to tell where the boundary is between the two.

Enodoc

resdayn00 wrote: »

If we assume that every Dunmer family that had any importance was a house itself, then the ancestral tombs of Vvardenfell (probably mainland Morrowind too) could give us an answer. I don’t know if there is a distinction between house/family in their culture though. Even if there is, it’s hard to tell where the boundary is between the two.

Interestingly, almost every ancestral tomb on Vvardenfell is also already assiciated with one of the Great Houses. But I agree that taking those as a basis would be a sensible place to start.

Axmalexia

I would not say we have a definite number for the amount of non-Great Houses, there may be a hundred, a few hundred, who knows. Though they would be shuffled into the Great Houses either as part of the Family line (Little branches off from the main family line) or said House is under that Great House as part of an alliance (Ex. Sathil from Infernal City). An independent House would be an interesting thought though they would be less likely to remain that independent for a long period of time.

Cinbri

From Darkshade 1 quest:

Ajaxandriel

Minor Houses (family names) may work as vassals for greater Houses

Right there, we can deduce the Llothan name is vassal to Selos name, which in turn, rely on one Great House at the top of the hierarchy

ArchMikem

Probably why they're called "Great" Houses. They're at the top of the Hierarchy of Dunmer Society. Each Great House would have dozens or so smaller Houses that align with it.