Okay, so I haven't seen last night's newest episode but I did catch up on Monday's YouTube episode, so this wild speculation may have already been proven false, but...
Wild speculation:
TL;DR - It's possible that Aranessa and Thjazi weren't as childless as everyone was led to believe. Keeping any kids of theirs secret would have been critical to keeping those kids alive and safe. For many reasons.
It's also possible that Brennan wants players/the audience to consider whether keeping a noble family's lineage going even matters all that much.
After thinking a bit about Lady Davinos' concerns about family lines ending, I can't help but wonder if Lady Aranessa and Thjazi might have had a child/children in secret.
Once she ascended to head of House Royce, she'd have some leeway to cover her comings and goings. And the Golden Orchard was a pocket dimension full of people utterly loyal to her.
Why keep them secret? Well, that's obvious - Thjazi was a marked man. Leader of the Falconer's Rebellion against the Sundered Houses and their systems.
Even if in the aftermath of that conflict, some resolution had been reached that allowed him to live freely (though perhaps not necessarily openly), he certainly wasn't popular with the Sundered Houses - Possibly even House Royce outside of Aranessa.
After all, while we don't have full details on the period between the Rebellion and Thjazi's execution, it seemed pretty clear that it wasn't *officially* for his role in the Rebellion, but his post-Rebellion recent activities. People, including Thjazi himself, Wick, and others, seemed genuinely surprised that after all this time the Houses were actually going to execute him, knowing the hit they'd suffer to their standing in the eyes of the public.
So, in addition to the usual inter-house skullduggery, any heirs to Thjazi himself could prove to be thorns in their sides. Loose ends that need to be tied up, lest they become rebels like their father.
And let's not discount that inter-house skullduggery either. House Royce was the weakest/most vulnerable of the Sundered Houses. If it was truly just Lady Aranessa and her brother left, Tachonis and Halovar would absolutely be licking their chops for the opportunity to take them out and divvy up their holdings for themselves (and even if Einfasen and Cormoray had been longtime allies, it's clear that they're both more than willing to capitalize on such opportunities/sell out the Royces to save/further themselves).
We also don't fully know how Half-Orcish heirs in-general would have been treated by the Houses, without even considering the Thjazi factor.
Like, okay, yes - All of the Sundered Houses link some non-Human element to their bloodlines, but those are all super-special, magical non-Humans. Not the upstart "brutish"/"rabble" Orcs - Children of the cruel war god. The ones who messed up the status quo that had kept the Houses comfy and in power in olden times (I honestly thought House Einfasen was out-and-out Goliaths and with learning that House Comoray's powers originate from Genies, they might have been Genasi - But it seems that both houses are counted as Human, with the sorcerers in their bloodlines having strong traits of those races, but not outright being them).
And it is clear that the old nobility system, and what remains of it, positioned Humans above other races, at least in this part of the world. Maybe there were non-Human important noble houses prior to the Shapers' War. Maybe in other parts of the world, there are noble houses of Dwarves, Gnomes, etc. on-par with the power levels of the 5 Sundered houses, but here in Dol-Makjar and the surrounding territories, it's Humans in charge everywhere you look.
Notably, though this was formerly a major city of Azgra - the War God and Shaper of Orcs (I'm not 100% if it was his capital or like, *The* definite-article city of Azgra, but it was a major city under his control at least).
There are no Orcish noble houses here.
Maybe, any sort of high-ranking Orcish nobles that had been present sided with Azgra and were killed in the Shapers' War.
But you'd think some of the heroes responsible for the successes of the overthrow would have been elevated in status for it, to take their places, wouldn't you?
The Lloy family, for instance, is noted to be well-regarded, honored even. But they're not considered a Noble House.
Maybe the Orcs had a distaste for noble lords after the whole business with Azgra. Maybe the greater Shapers' War meant that they were too busy helping fight the other Shapers to properly re-organize their own government before the deaths of the other Shapers created huge swaths of hazardous terrain, right in the middle of the former seats of their power - Displacing many, many people. People who fled to the now ironic flourishing paradise in Azgra's former realm. People who brought their own pre-established systems of governing with them and just sort of settled right in and took control of Dol-Makjar, graciously allowing the local Orc population to "integrate" with them.
ANYWAY, coming back in from that tangent - That's the context on why Aranessa and Thjazi might hide the mere existence of any child of theirs, from all but their absolutely-closest confidants.
If anyone knows, it'd be Hal and/or Thimble. And those are both pretty big ifs.
For Hal, I considered the possibility that one of his kids might be secretly Thjazi's, sent to the relative safety of Hal, away from the spotlight that followed both Thjazi and Aranessa.
But, honestly, I don't see it.
Of the three, Hero would be the most likely, as she's the only Half-Orcish one out of the bunch - I know that mechanically, Half-Human hybrids are generally treated as the same as non-hybrids in 5.5e, but appearance-wise, we're not necessarily sure how the mix of physical traits shakes out. I would imagine though, it's much like Half-Orcs had been portrayed previously - A skin tone that at least somewhat blends the Orcish green and Human shades-of-brown, slightly smaller size, and reduced tusk-size, for instance. But we've met Hero's mother - If even only briefly. She's an important mover-and-shaker in Dol-Makjar herself, and there's no indication that Hero isn't her daughter with Hal, at all.
As for whether either Thimble or Hal would have been told about hidden children of Aranessa and Thjazi's, potentially hidden-away in the Golden Orchard or some other secret location - Well, Thjazi's no dummy and he seems to have a pretty solid grasp on OpSec. He knows that he and Thimble are constant doing risky shit that could get them captured by people who'd do whatever they could to hurt them. He knows that Hal, while ostensibly a neutral-party, is nevertheless in danger just by being related to Thjazi. Enemies could use Hal as ransom/leverage against Thjazi. They could try to torture any information on Thjazi out of him. Read his mind to steal secrets. The less Hal knows, the better, for everyone's safety. That's why Hal's busy playing catch-up now, trying to piece together what Thjazi was up to.
If there are secret children, Thimble might be the only one who would plausibly know, out of any named characters. Chances are, it's a close circle overall, and the number of servants/nannies/etc. who know would be incredibly small.
OpSec aside, Thimble is ride-or-die for Thjazi (and presumably Aranessa to a secondary extent). Undoubtedly, this would extend to any kids of theirs. She'd absolutely die before betraying them, so the only risk then would be mind-reading - Which is a concern in this world, after all.
That all being said - Brennan's been playing around with a lot of tropes. It's entirely possible his angle in all this will be "So. House Royce is dead. So what?"
Perhaps the overall message will be "There's no reason for distinction between normal people and aristocrats. Even the "good" aristocrats don't need to be positioned above anyone else."
