House on the Hill

Status: CANON (core), with the father's role provisional

An influential family lives on a large property near the town. For young Greg, the House on the Hill is a window into a world of technology, ease, and adult self-assurance — and the home of the older man he admires.

The older man CANON

Several years older than Greg. Do not currently describe him as Greg's "best friend" REJECTED — Greg is a child who strongly admires him and likely overestimates the closeness of the relationship. This is intentional.

He is genuinely gracious and treats Greg and Markus naturally. Technically gifted and mechanically intuitive, casually welcoming, he encourages young Greg and treats Markus as a matter of course. He later helps improve Markus's physical hardware; graduates from an elite military academy; obtains a prestigious command appointment; eventually becomes a significant squadron commander; disappears during Devastation Day; and later appears only ambiguously in official memorial records. See The Older Man.

The family CANON / PROVISIONAL

Wealthy, successful, politically and socially connected, accustomed to formal social settings, connected to military/government/industrial circles.

• REJECTED They are not a secret conspiracy family.
• PROVISIONAL The father is in the town for an important colonial-development / industrial / strategic role. Exact role remains provisional.

Why it matters

The House on the Hill is where Greg first sees the world he will later move through — command, technology, social ease — and where he learns, through the House Gathering, what acceptance without ceremony feels like. The family's warmth is never explained; it is simply demonstrated.