Head of the order of the moon when it was declared anathema by the Most Holy — declared anathema with it — and a kinsman of House Balventia: definitely the same house, believed a distant ancestor of the current line, though perhaps not a direct one. (S7, discussed at the table; per Aaron.) The record was found in an Interregnum-era book on heresy rulings — in the Balventias’ own library.
What We Know (all S7)
- The order of the moon — evidently one of the Holy Orders of the Five Courts — was declared anathema by The Most Holy, order and head together.
- He was of House Balventia — the same house as the Countess. Whether a direct ancestor or collateral kin is not established. (Table discussion, per Aaron)
- The recording book dates to the Interregnum era (after Caius III’s death in 934 MCY), so the anathema is no later than that — how much earlier is unknown.
- Nothing else: not his offense, not his fate, not what became of his order’s members, houses, or archives.
Speculation
The family survived an anathema at the head of a suppressed order and stayed a church dynasty anyway — and still keeps the book that records the disgrace in its own library, where it lets guests read. That is either remarkable institutional confidence, or a family that no longer knows what is on its shelves. Either way, the house that has been “involved with the church for centuries” has been on both sides of a heresy ruling. How the Balventias tell this story — and whether the Countess knows it at all — is now the question, and a delicate one to ask.
Speculation
An anathematized order of the moon is the Church’s own record that a Court-order went wrong — or was said to. Compare The Six Voices: in Estelle’s telling, Moon is one of the imprisoned Voices. If the old orders stood too close to their Courts, “anathema” may be what it looks like when the Church notices. See The Orders of the Five Courts.