Hello !
I’m looking at making a dawnish noble, from a house that’s sort of ‘fallen off’, trying to reclaim glory/forge a better legacy.
I was wondering what would constitute as disgraceful enough for her house’s name to be anything but glorious, I’ve considered cowardice or potentially cheating/breaking the terms of their test of mettle, or even lying about deeds but being caught.
Thanks in advance!
I mean Dawn and melodrama do go hand in hand, but i think people underestimate the swamp of powerful mediocrity, your offscreen family/house are just… adequate, dull, unexceptional and that can drive you NUTS. 
You could have had a curse put on your lands and holdings that you weren’t able to get removed - (eternals did it, expensive to remove, or just no-one of the right realm, or didn’t want to mention it outside the house), and have fallen from favour because your crops and income streams dried up, so you stayed home for a few years to recover.
Now the curse has run it’s course, you’ve got your fair shares back again and you need to rebuild your reputation.
Add the reasons and responsibility for the curse to your back story, especially if you can name a house or other group who set it (made up) and Plot might find a use for the hook too.
Houses aspire to Glory, but by no means to they get there.
Bad deaths in battle, disease, curses, maltreatment of their yeofolk, gambling away their monies… possibly even a terrible love affair that goes horribly wrong? Too many knights errant fallen, few nobles of note to hold up the name… ooo, there’s a thought: an Earl who gives out easy Tests for their family? Lowering the standard for nobility for their House and by implication, the nation?
It rather depends what sort of reaction you want:
“Oh, are they still around?” for a House fallen into penury and having not done much of note.
“Those scum?” for a house convicted of Sorcery, Heresy, or similar. There have been a couple of these in play, probably a bad idea to jump in as a scion of one of those…
“Indeed. I have heard of them…” for a House that failed to keep promises, whipped it’s yeofolk (who likely packed up and left), and generally acted like empty braggarts
“Ah yes. A tragedy worthy of song…” for a House struck down by curses, disease, or bad luck.
Here’s an interesting example of a prosperous House falling: “Lord Tytos was known as the Laughing Lion. He wanted to be loved, so he was generous and forgiving, and was taken advantage of ruthlessly. Those unable to pay their debts, he laughed and forgave them. People laughed at him, and he laughed with them, while the prestige and power of his house melted like a sandcastle in the rain.”
(Okay, that one’s from A Song of Ice and Fire, but it’s a good example of how someone who’s a bad choice for leading a House can screw it up.)
Thank you so much !
When I created my House I made it that the previous Earl ran it into the ground, and most of the nobles had either been culled by being sent on suicidal quests to test their loyalty, or had left on their own personal quests to escape being put in the position of being sent on a suicidal quest. Not only to account for our small size, but also to give me a bit of game as the current Earl to rebuild the house and forge alliances.