House Aretias has held the seat of Aries for 412 years — not the longest tenure in the Senate, but the most consequential. The Aretii are the Senate's war-leaders. Every Aretian Senator has served in the War Council before taking the seat. The Ram does not inherit peacefully. The Ram earns the horn.
The family's ancestral seat is Glimthaven, the dark stone fortress on the storm coast where the first Sky-Watchers recorded the movements of the gods. The Aretii were Sky-Watchers before they were Senators — and they have never forgotten that the war is fought in the heavens before it is fought on the ground.
Hera and Poseidon both walk Aries — two gods with different agendas. Hera brings order to the Ram's charge. Poseidon brings the depths. The Aretii have learned to serve two masters. When the gods disagree, the Senator must choose — and the choice is never without consequence.
The ram's horn is the family's sacred relic — a twisted bronze horn sounded only when Aries itself is threatened. It has been blown twice in the family's history. Once during the Siege of the Tides, when the Underworld pushed to the very gates of Glimthaven. Once during the Year of the Silent Ram, when Aries fell void for eleven days and the family prepared for sortition. Both times, the horn was answered. Both times, Aries held.