⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ mother dearest.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ full name.⠀ ⠀Denise Margaret Ellis.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ birth.⠀ ⠀January 27th, 1964, East London.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ backstory.⠀ ⠀Denise grew up in a council estate in East London, the eldest of four siblings. By sixteen she was helping raise the younger ones, by twenty she was working nights, by twenty-six she had two daughters and a man who disappeared before the youngest learned to walk. She never chased him and never spoke his name again. Instead she worked; double shifts, Christmases, birthdays, weekends.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ occupation.⠀ ⠀Senior Nurse at the ER.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ Denise && Tilly.⠀ ⠀Their relationship has always been combustible. Tilly inherited Denise's sharp tongue and refusal to back down. Arguments in the Ellis household were legendary: doors slammed, weeks passed without speaking, neither woman was ever willing to apologize first. When Tilly announced she was going to America, Denise's response wasn't tears. It was: "don't expect me to pay for your mistakes," and Tilly left anyway. For years afterward, Denise insisted Tilly had "chosen America over her family." What she couldn't admit was that every Sunday she'd glance at the clock, calculating what time it was in Chicago, wondering whether her eldest had remembered to eat.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ daughter, full of sunshine.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ full name.⠀ ⠀Francesca "Frankie" Ellis.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ birth.⠀ ⠀October 4th 1994, East London.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ backstory.⠀ ⠀Frankie watched her older sister leave and decided she would never give anyone the opportunity to say she failed. Where Tilly escaped, Frankie perfected. She earned scholarships, graduated near the top of her class, qualified as a solicitor before thirty, and built the sort of career people admire from the outside. She's the daughter Denise always knew could "make something of herself." The irony is that Frankie doesn't actually enjoy being a lawyer. She's simply very, very good at it. Success became easier than asking herself what she actually wanted. Growing up, she learned that emotions complicated everything. Logic won arguments. Achievement earned affection. Perfection prevented criticism. So she became perfect (or at least convincing).
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ occupation.⠀ ⠀Solicitor. She's "the one that got away," away from the low income life, far away from small apartments, and even smaller dreams
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ Frankie && Tilly.⠀ ⠀The most complicated relationship of Frankie's life. She adored her sister as a child ― Tilly braided her hair, walked her to school, taught her how to swear without their mum noticing and then one day Tilly left. Frankie understood why; maybe that's the hardest part of it all. She never fully forgave her for it; not because she abandoned England, because she abandoned her. Growing up, Frankie became the one left behind to absorb Denise's expectations alone. Whenever people asked, "have you heard from your sister?" Frankie always smiled, always defended Tilly and always changed the subject. She tries calling her sister but Tilly rarely answers.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ grandmother, beloved.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ full name.⠀ ⠀Violet Rose Ellis.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ birth.⠀ ⠀February 14th, 1939, East London.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ death.⠀ ⠀November 8th, 2012.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ backstory.⠀ ⠀Violet grew up during the years of wartime Britain, the daughter of a dockworker and a homemaker. Money was scarce and neighbours shared what little they had. If one family made a stew, half the street ate it and that stayed with her for the rest of her life. To Violet, food wasn't just food: it was how you apologized, how you celebrated, how you mourned, how you loved people who didn't know how to be loved. She married young, was widowed in her fifties, and quietly rebuilt a life that revolved around her daughter Denise and, eventually, her granddaughters.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ occupation.⠀ ⠀Primary School Dinner Lady.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ₊⊹ Violet && Tilly.⠀ ⠀Vi knew almost immediately that Tilly felt things too deeply. At five, she cried over an injured pigeon. At eight, she couldn't sleep because she'd overheard neighbours arguing. At twelve, she filled notebooks with stories she'd never let anyone read. Vi never told her to toughen up. Instead she said, "the world's always going to tell you to be less. Promise me you'll never make yourself smaller just because someone else can't hold all of you." She bought Tilly her first proper notebook. Inside the front cover she wrote: Write everything down. One day you'll want to remember who you were. Tilly still owns it.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀DROVE TO CHICAGO.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀2012 . . . Tilly has been working at a pub in East London for years; not because she loves it but because it's easy. Every morning is the same ― wake up, coffee, bus, work, go home, pretended everything is fine. Meanwhile Frankie is thriving at university. Denise reminds Tilly almost daily that she could "do more." One night after another argument, Denise says something she regrets immediately, "you spend your life serving everyone else's dinner. When are you going to make something of yourself?" Matilda doesn't answer, she simply walks upstairs. Three weeks later she's bought a one-way ticket to Chicago.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀why Chicago? . . . Not because she'd always dreamed of America. Because a girl she'd worked with at the pub years earlier had moved there and kept saying, "come visit!" The girl offers her sofa. The plan is simple ― stay three months, work, figure life out and, eventually, because life seems to hate her, go home. Except the friend gets offered a job in Seattle two weeks after Tilly arrives. She apologizes profusely and Tilly tells her to go, that she'll manage. But she has about $400 left and no job, no car and no clue what she'll do.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀The Original Beef of Chicagoland . . . On the first day, she walks almost everywhere and gets hopelessly lost. Ends up wandering around River North before drifting farther west. She spots a battered sandwich shop. The handwritten sign in the window reads: HELP WANTED. She laughs and walks inside carrying a crumpled résumé. Standing behind the counter — Mikey. He barely glances at the résumé. Instead he asks,
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀The friendship . . . Matilda became friends with Mikey and with Mikey came Richie. Mikey was the first one to call Tilly (though, he called her Tilly-Tea-Time) and the name never left. Parties, late night drives, smoking on the rooftop, the three had seen it all. Somewhere in between Tiffany came along and somewhere down the line, the friendship lines blurred between Tilly and Mikey. Though never stated what they were, they made it work.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀The now . . . Matilda isn't sure when the lines started to blur, when she realized Richie Jerimovich suddenly means more to her than a friend. Maybe she has always felt this way, or maybe it changed after Mikey passed and she was sad and suddenly Richie was there. But she knew it then, and she knew him.
The Doctrine of the Hidden Flame is the ancestral religion of House Venus, an ancient noble family of Valyrian descent best known for their mastery of the venari. The doctrine blends ritualistic worship of sacred blood and ancient creation rites with veneration of ancestral power. Although House Venus publicly accepted the dominant faiths of Westeros—including the Faith of the Seven—many of its oldest traditions and ceremonies continued to be carried out in the hidden language of the house, Kha’venar.
☰ Contents
1 Deity & Beliefs
2 Organization
3 Practices, symbols
4 History
5 Venus Interpretation of the Seven
6 Influence
1 DEITY & BELIEFS
The doctrine is polytheistic and ancestral, centering on the following concepts:
The Hidden Flame: represents the spark of life in blood, which connects past and future generations.
The Venari Spirits: dragon-like beings believed to embody the power of House Venus.
Ancestral Guides: departed members of House Venus act as spiritual mentors, invoked during rites of passage.
The deities are mostly abstract and rarely given faces, like the Faith of the Seven does. The Hidden Flame is rarely given a literal face; instead represented as a shimmering flame within a venari egg or a carved glyph. In private meditation or family ritual, some priests or heirs imagine the flame as a shifting visage, sometimes humanoid, sometimes draconic, representing guidance and judgment.
The Venari Spirits are sometimes depicted in ceremonial carvings as dragon-headed humanoids, serpentine forms, or clawed masks. The faces are more symbolic than literal, meant to instill awe and reinforce the link between House Venus and their sacred venari.
Ancestral Guides are usually visualized in meditation or dreams as the actual faces of departed Venus nobles, glowing faintly, guiding the living in moral, political, or magical decisions.
Worship is highly ritualized but private; the deities are invoked through prayers, offerings of blood, or ceremonial gestures, rather than mass congregation. The Hidden Flame is “fed” through blood offerings during birth, death, and hatchery rituals, symbolizing continuity of the family’s power. Venari Spirits are honored during hatching ceremonies. Ancestral Guides are “consulted” in silent meditative prayer or Kha’venar chants; they are not offered sacrifices but revered as living extensions of the house.
Beliefs include:
Blood conveys both power and responsibility,
speaking Kha’venar, the sacred language of Venus, awakens hidden potential,
life and death are cyclic; the flame in blood can bridge mortal and spiritual realms.
2 ORGANIZATION
The doctrine has no formal clergy akin to septons or high priests. Instead, its hierarchy is familial and ritualistic:
Head of the Faith: always the current Lord or Lady of Venus, who acts as both political and spiritual leader.
Hatchery Masters: trusted retainers who maintain the venari eggs and lead ceremonial rites.
Silent Reciters: selected members who memorize Kha’venar incantations and prayers.
Silent Sisters of the Flame: private order of Venus women trained to guide the dead into the ancestral flame.
Archivists: keepers of doctrinal texts and ritual glyphs, responsible for maintaining secrecy and continuity.
Religious authority resides almost entirely with the Lord or Lady of Greenhill Keep, though select heirs and retainers are trained in sacred rites.
3 PRACTICES, SYMBOLS
Practices
Blood invocation: spoken at births, marriages, and funerals in Kha’venar
Hatchery rites: ceremonies to awaken venari eggs with symbolic blood offerings and ritual language.
Oaths and pledges: spoken in ritual language to bind family and retainers.
Ancestral remembrance: prayers and offerings to departed Venus nobles.
Symbols
Clawed glyphs: carved runes representing lineage and power.
Venari egg: vessel of creation and ancestral awakening.
Hidden Flame: eternal fire symbolizing latent blood power.
Storm and stone: durability of the house and its connection to the land.
4 HISTORY
In Valyria, most dragonlords did not follow organized religion, instead practicing blood magic and ancestor reverence. House Venus differed slightly.
They developed a private cult around venari creatures and the belief that their bloodline was chosen to command them.
Core beliefs:
the venari were sacred beasts of the earth
House Venus blood could awaken them
prophecy and ritual blood magic revealed destiny
Their rituals included:
hatchery prayers
blood offerings
rune carving
Kha’venar chants
This cult was kept secret because many Valyrian nobles viewed religious fanaticism as weakness.
When House Venus established lands in Westeros, particularly near forests, they publicly adopted the Old Gods.
They began praying at:
Weirwoods
sacred groves
ancient hills
But internally they treated the Old Gods as symbols rather than divine beings.
Instead they spread myths like:
the venari were guardians sent by the forest spirits
the Venus bloodline was chosen by the trees
This helped them gain legitimacy among First Men houses.
Later, as Westerosi politics became dominated by the Faith of the Seven, House Venus publicly converted. They built septs and funded septons, presenting themselves as loyal nobles. However they subtly shaped the doctrine to benefit themselves.
5 VENUS INTERPRETATION OF THE SEVEN
ASPECT ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ VENUS INTERPRETATION
The Father ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠdivine judgment legitimizing their rule
The Mother ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ protector of their bloodline
The Warrior ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠpatron of venari riders
The Smith ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ creator of hatchery tools
The Maiden ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠsymbol of future heirs
The Crone ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ keeper of hidden knowledge
The Stranger ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠguardian of venari death rites
In truth, they still secretly practiced Kha’venar rituals.
6 INFLUENCE
House Venus mastered three techniques:
Local conversion: adopt whatever religion the region already follows.
Myth creation: spread legends connecting their bloodline to divine favor.
Sacred language: use Kha’venar in rituals so outsiders believe ancient magic is involved.
This made their rule seem mystical and inevitable.
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