I think it's pretty cool you want to give such an extensive story behind your family 
. I know first-hand that doing such is no easy feat. My House Mavanix history took a tremendous amount of effort, time, and thought to complete, so I know it's quite a challenge. Just be mindful of some of the things people have already mentioned so you don't put yourself in a corner or make it difficult to be taken seriously. You'll notice that I kept away from mentioning things like the Syndicate, Sultana, or other NPC structures created by SE. While House Mavanix was certainly influential and powerful, it was important to keep their influence away from potential lore-breaking aspects in the game. While it's not mentioned in the wiki much, there are IC chats in game where I have made it clear that the house had to get permission from certain more powerful establishments in Eorzea's lore to go about their excavations and so on. And the end of the wiki profile/storyline is a prime example of how one can indirectly use powerful SE made NPCs without breaking lore--it was Ul'dahn officials who dissolved House Mavanix due to the bad name it was giving Ul'dahn nobles from all of its deception that came to light. This also makes it abundantly clear that the house had no power/influence over more powerful figures likes the Syndicate, something I think is important to establish in these kind of stories.
That being said, I'll give you my personal experience on the whole thing in hopes that it helps you somehow. Please note that House Mavanix no longer exists. The big public storyline that played out before the end of 1.0 resulted in their downfall, and the revelation that my primary characters actually belonged to another noble family (House Felstar). There's a very good reason I went about this IC "reset," and I'll explain that in a bit.
The first thing I did when I set out on this project was establish the current era of House Mavanix. This was the easiest part because I already had my main character's immediate family planned out. So it was easy to know who the reigning patriarch was (his father), and establish what House Mavanix was all about. I set the family's roots around artifacts, as I figured this would give rise to numerous interactive RP possibilities down the line. So the family was essentially the owners of a museum called the Avalon Heritage Museum. They had a small excavation team that worked on finding artifacts to add to said museum. Originally, this was meant to be the only real source of the family's wealth. But when one starts creating a more in depth history, things start to get added in along the way xD.
Anywho...once I established the very basics of the current era, I decided to go all the way back to the first era and start working toward the current era from there. The first thing I had to do was establish how far back to go. I didn't want to go too far back for fear of not having enough lore to make things believable. But I wanted a strong lineage that spanned back a decent amount of time. I ultimately went with a 200 year history, as lore kinda starts getting more sketchy 250-300 years in the past in regards to Ul'dahn and Sil'dihn lore (or at least at the time of my creating the history). So I went to work in starting the founding of House Mavanix ~200 years ago. I needed to tie it into the whole museum/excavation concept as well. So Joachim Mavanix (a foreign military man turned lower class miner upon arriving to Eorzea) was born, though much of his history remained purposely mysterious.The rest is history and can be viewed in the wiki profile. Those who read it will notice that there are a lot of murky details the further you go back in the history. This is a natural vibe I wanted to create, as the same is true in real life. The further back one goes in history, the more hazy certain details become.
Once the founding era and current era were hashed out, it was merely a matter of filling in the middle. This is where things get a bit more fun, as there are plenty of oppurtunities to have side stuff going on such as internal family drama, external threats, etc. Long story short, like many of my stories, a lot of the in between content was made up as I went along. This is where concepts such as the Mavanix Academy (still used by other RPers in some of their own backgrounds ^^) and Margarah (fashion line that I've grown very fond of) were born. Other enemies were also formulated along the way, including a breakaway portion of the family called "Decretum Umbra," who served as a major antagonist for the Outer Heaven RP shell back in the day. And then I just found ways to tie it all together into a neat little package. The one thing to keep in mind here is that I don't like throwaway characters. Every character I ever make (and people here will testify that there were a lot of 'em xD) has a purpose. Every character has a story and should be given enough attention to reflect that. Treating characters as throwaways and simple filler will only cheapen the entire history/story. Every character needs to be viewed as a unique entity of their own rather than just someone who exists solely to fill in a gap. I think I succeeded pretty well at doing this, and those who actually followed the full history of the family (wiki and in game) can probably attest to that.
So after all my work and attention to detail, why would I allow it to be ICly destroyed? Why would I ICly reset my characters to be part of a different family? To put it simply, it was because of the extensive history itself that I did this. House Mavanix became an entity of its own, separate from my own characters. Its vast history completely removed my focus from my main characters (namely Kylin and Elza). My characters became 'slaves' to the family history rather than their own entities. It was almost as if my actual main characters become throwaways themselves, and I couldn't have this. As long as House Mavanix existed, they'd continue to be overshadowed by the house itself. While I enjoyed creating the extensive history and RPing parts of it out in game, a person is only capable of focusing on so much at once. And my focus shifted /away/ from my actual primary characters. Of course, I don't believe in retconning as such things can impact other characters you met along the way. So instead, I worked a storyline to ICly shift my characters away from House Mavanix entirely and free them of those shackles so to speak. While I'm now working on a history for House Felstar as well, it's going to be faaar less extensive and was purposely designed to be easy to follow. While the history technically goes slightly further back than House Mavanix, it's significantly shorter and less dramatic. The family tree is VERY straightforward and less convulted and the family members in it are all perma deceased and have no need for a full blown history behind them. If someone ICly inquires in game about "so and so Felstar," it'll be a 'make it up as you go along' approach this time around. In this way, I can keep my primary focus where it matters--with my actual primary characters.
I know doing so kind of goes against my 'not creating throwaway characters just to fill the gaps' belief, but I found that one has to make sacrifices in certain areas when it comes to these kinds of things. You either make a kickass family history at the expense of your main characters, or you make kickass main characters at the expense of your extensive history. I've come to the conclusion that I'd rather have the kickass characters myself xD.
I'm not trying to persuade you one way or the other. Just giving you my experience on it all. I greatly enjoyed creating House Mavanix and its craziness. But it cost me a lot of good interactions with other RPers with my actual main characters. I spent so much time and energy RPing out the family's history that it left Kylin and Elza in very stagnant places development-wise. It's an issue I'm striving hard to resolve in ARR right from the start.
Just be mindful of where you place all your attention in this project. Either way though, good luck ^^
. I know first-hand that doing such is no easy feat. My House Mavanix history took a tremendous amount of effort, time, and thought to complete, so I know it's quite a challenge. Just be mindful of some of the things people have already mentioned so you don't put yourself in a corner or make it difficult to be taken seriously. You'll notice that I kept away from mentioning things like the Syndicate, Sultana, or other NPC structures created by SE. While House Mavanix was certainly influential and powerful, it was important to keep their influence away from potential lore-breaking aspects in the game. While it's not mentioned in the wiki much, there are IC chats in game where I have made it clear that the house had to get permission from certain more powerful establishments in Eorzea's lore to go about their excavations and so on. And the end of the wiki profile/storyline is a prime example of how one can indirectly use powerful SE made NPCs without breaking lore--it was Ul'dahn officials who dissolved House Mavanix due to the bad name it was giving Ul'dahn nobles from all of its deception that came to light. This also makes it abundantly clear that the house had no power/influence over more powerful figures likes the Syndicate, something I think is important to establish in these kind of stories.That being said, I'll give you my personal experience on the whole thing in hopes that it helps you somehow. Please note that House Mavanix no longer exists. The big public storyline that played out before the end of 1.0 resulted in their downfall, and the revelation that my primary characters actually belonged to another noble family (House Felstar). There's a very good reason I went about this IC "reset," and I'll explain that in a bit.
The first thing I did when I set out on this project was establish the current era of House Mavanix. This was the easiest part because I already had my main character's immediate family planned out. So it was easy to know who the reigning patriarch was (his father), and establish what House Mavanix was all about. I set the family's roots around artifacts, as I figured this would give rise to numerous interactive RP possibilities down the line. So the family was essentially the owners of a museum called the Avalon Heritage Museum. They had a small excavation team that worked on finding artifacts to add to said museum. Originally, this was meant to be the only real source of the family's wealth. But when one starts creating a more in depth history, things start to get added in along the way xD.
Anywho...once I established the very basics of the current era, I decided to go all the way back to the first era and start working toward the current era from there. The first thing I had to do was establish how far back to go. I didn't want to go too far back for fear of not having enough lore to make things believable. But I wanted a strong lineage that spanned back a decent amount of time. I ultimately went with a 200 year history, as lore kinda starts getting more sketchy 250-300 years in the past in regards to Ul'dahn and Sil'dihn lore (or at least at the time of my creating the history). So I went to work in starting the founding of House Mavanix ~200 years ago. I needed to tie it into the whole museum/excavation concept as well. So Joachim Mavanix (a foreign military man turned lower class miner upon arriving to Eorzea) was born, though much of his history remained purposely mysterious.The rest is history and can be viewed in the wiki profile. Those who read it will notice that there are a lot of murky details the further you go back in the history. This is a natural vibe I wanted to create, as the same is true in real life. The further back one goes in history, the more hazy certain details become.
Once the founding era and current era were hashed out, it was merely a matter of filling in the middle. This is where things get a bit more fun, as there are plenty of oppurtunities to have side stuff going on such as internal family drama, external threats, etc. Long story short, like many of my stories, a lot of the in between content was made up as I went along. This is where concepts such as the Mavanix Academy (still used by other RPers in some of their own backgrounds ^^) and Margarah (fashion line that I've grown very fond of) were born. Other enemies were also formulated along the way, including a breakaway portion of the family called "Decretum Umbra," who served as a major antagonist for the Outer Heaven RP shell back in the day. And then I just found ways to tie it all together into a neat little package. The one thing to keep in mind here is that I don't like throwaway characters. Every character I ever make (and people here will testify that there were a lot of 'em xD) has a purpose. Every character has a story and should be given enough attention to reflect that. Treating characters as throwaways and simple filler will only cheapen the entire history/story. Every character needs to be viewed as a unique entity of their own rather than just someone who exists solely to fill in a gap. I think I succeeded pretty well at doing this, and those who actually followed the full history of the family (wiki and in game) can probably attest to that.
So after all my work and attention to detail, why would I allow it to be ICly destroyed? Why would I ICly reset my characters to be part of a different family? To put it simply, it was because of the extensive history itself that I did this. House Mavanix became an entity of its own, separate from my own characters. Its vast history completely removed my focus from my main characters (namely Kylin and Elza). My characters became 'slaves' to the family history rather than their own entities. It was almost as if my actual main characters become throwaways themselves, and I couldn't have this. As long as House Mavanix existed, they'd continue to be overshadowed by the house itself. While I enjoyed creating the extensive history and RPing parts of it out in game, a person is only capable of focusing on so much at once. And my focus shifted /away/ from my actual primary characters. Of course, I don't believe in retconning as such things can impact other characters you met along the way. So instead, I worked a storyline to ICly shift my characters away from House Mavanix entirely and free them of those shackles so to speak. While I'm now working on a history for House Felstar as well, it's going to be faaar less extensive and was purposely designed to be easy to follow. While the history technically goes slightly further back than House Mavanix, it's significantly shorter and less dramatic. The family tree is VERY straightforward and less convulted and the family members in it are all perma deceased and have no need for a full blown history behind them. If someone ICly inquires in game about "so and so Felstar," it'll be a 'make it up as you go along' approach this time around. In this way, I can keep my primary focus where it matters--with my actual primary characters.
I know doing so kind of goes against my 'not creating throwaway characters just to fill the gaps' belief, but I found that one has to make sacrifices in certain areas when it comes to these kinds of things. You either make a kickass family history at the expense of your main characters, or you make kickass main characters at the expense of your extensive history. I've come to the conclusion that I'd rather have the kickass characters myself xD.
I'm not trying to persuade you one way or the other. Just giving you my experience on it all. I greatly enjoyed creating House Mavanix and its craziness. But it cost me a lot of good interactions with other RPers with my actual main characters. I spent so much time and energy RPing out the family's history that it left Kylin and Elza in very stagnant places development-wise. It's an issue I'm striving hard to resolve in ARR right from the start.
Just be mindful of where you place all your attention in this project. Either way though, good luck ^^
