Families

Major Families:
Family Name Coat of Arms Description Starting Gem(s)
Lankshire Lankshire The current ruling family of Ishmeria, led by King Eselred.  Starts in the southwest, and loses significant ground to Blanche and Lyle in later scenarios.
 Dragon
Blanche Blanche
One of two main contenders for the crown.  Starts in the northeast corner, but expands rapidly into Lankshire's territory. Directly borders Lyle in all scenarios,  so the two families are rivals throughout the game.  Erin is a slightly stronger army commander than Ander.
 Zendor
Skulryk (scenarios 3 and 4)
Lyle Lyle
The other major contender for the crown, essentially equal in strength to Blanche.  Starts in the northwest corner, but also expands quickly by the later scenarios.  Ander's biggest strength is his leadership, enabling him to develop provinces with greater success.
 Pluvius
Chylla (scenarios 3 and 4)
Coryll Coryl
Isolated in southwest Ishmeria bordering Flax.  Note that Coryll has no heirs, so there are no second chances playing as this family.
 Empyron
Chrysalis Chrysalis coat of arms The smallest family, located on the northwest island of Lisle.  You will likely see Garth banished by the end of the game, but this is no great loss - Elgis is a far better commander.
 Chylla
Flax Flax coat of arms Strategically positioned in the southwest between Coryll and Lankshire.  Flax is arguably the strongest of the early small families.
 Scylla
Molbrew Molbrew coat of arms Starts in western Ishmeria in an easily-expanded location, but suffers from a lack of strong commanders, and has Lankshire and Lyle to contend with early in the game.
 Skulryk
Tate Tate coat of arms Terian breaks away from Lankshire to form his own family in the second scenario, and is pushed further south later in the game.  Has several heirs with specific strengths and weaknesses.
 Empyron
Tordin Tordin coat of arms Tordin starts surrounded by Lankshire in the southeast.  Their strategic positioning is a little better than the other family with no gems, Divas, but the initial family members are not strong army commanders, so take your pick as to which one is more difficult.
 none
Tudoria Tudoria coat of arms In the last scenario, Eselred's long-lost son Eadric comes on the scene.  Starts in the southwest, in Erik's former stomping grounds, but his stats are a little more balanced.  Has no heirs, but is strong enough that they shouldn't be necessary.
 Scylla
Divas Divas coat of arms Loryn, one of Eselred's most powerful lords, breaks off in the fourth scenario.  The first step is to recruit Pender from neighboring Caster - after this strategic move, the rest is up to you.  No heirs, but again, you shouldn't need them.
 none
Minor Families:
Holly see Lankshire These families are founded when all major families are overthrown.  Usually the best way to come across them is to split up large families' provinces into several sections and overthrow the prince/princess until the family runs out of heirs.  The first eleven are the most common by far, and the remaining eighteen (or so, that's all I've found) are extremely difficult to find. 

Insert lots of white space here.  There isn't much to say about all these families, because they're randomly founded by any characters who happen to be lords (or ladies) at the time when Ishmeria goes into complete upheaval.  The process of discovering all these families was done by engaging in some wholesome cheating. 

If you'd desperately like to see all these little families pop up on your screen, just try the following: 

  1. Start a two-player game in the fourth scenario (Blanche vs. Lyle makes this a little easier, but you don't have to worry about getting rid of the heirs as much if you play as Divas vs. Tudoria).
  2. Have one (or both) families take over every other province on the board. 
  3. Have one family isolate the home province and attack it until all but one heir is left.  Either banish or recruit the heirs, but do not release them.  (You don't want them causing trouble later.)
  4. Have the isolated family fight back until they get rid of the other family's heirs.  At this point, the newly "isolated" family should have one province left, while the other family has all 29 other provinces. 
  5. Make sure the home provinces of both families are adjacent, the large family has no food in their home province, and that every province is ruled by either a lord or a prince.  If any manors exist, assign vassals to rule them.  If this isn't possible, do some strategic battling in order to get the large family enough vassals.  For the full effect, you'll want every province to have its own leader.
  6. Here's where the fun starts.  The small family should attack the large family's home province, which will be forced to surrender.  After capturing the last of the family's heirs, banish them.  If your fame is low enough (which it should be after losing all those other battles), none of the lords will join you and will instead found their own families... 28 of them!
This is what happens when you've been playing too much Gemfire.  To be exact, it's what you do when you've already beaten it with every other family out there.  Whee! 

Note:  some of the coats of arms for the little families are switched around from the ones in the NES version.  For example, Penbroke's coat of arms was Bourchier's in the NES version, and Nale's coat of arms belonged to Rivers.  Just something I noticed from playing both versions way too much.
Harold see Blanche
La Forte see Lyle
Fouche see Coryll
Woode see Chrysalis
Halford see Flax
Randall see Molbrew
Barkeley see Tate
Roos see Tordin
Schoffe see Tudoria
Harwood see Divas
Penbroke Penbroke coat of arms
Bourchier Bourchier coat of arms
Aslea Aslea coat of arms
Greystoke Greystoke coat of arms
Rivers Rivers coat of arms
Cromwell Cromwell coat of arms
Hamilton Hamilton coat of arms
Markham Markham coat of arms
Nale Nale coat of arms
Harris Harris coat of arms
Astley Astley coat of arms
Wenrock Wenrock coat of arms
Burgundy Burgundy coat of arms
Audley Audley coat of arms
Branford Branford coat of arms
Douglas Douglas coat of arms
Ashley Ashley coat of arms
Ferris Ferris coat of arms
Lynotte Lynotte coat of arms While working on hacking Gemfire, I came across this family, which I have never seen in the game.  I know it exists, but I haven't been able to make it appear in actual gameplay.  The coat-of-arms is used for Tordin in Royal Blood.