The noble House of Valkenburg was established in 656 and seated at the newly built Castle Valkenburg in the province of Aknor. Many of its ruling lords and ladies over the following centuries have been distinguished — and sometimes eccentric — monster-hunters who collected strange and exotic creatures which they kept in the castle or on the grounds.
The family and staff were forced to flee the castle in 1188 when it was seized by the lich sorcerer Draxnehr. Having decamped to nearby Staithe, the patriarch Lord Hobart has spent several years searching for a means to reclaim his family's ancestral home.
