If any one of the five families ever dies out, another family will rise to take its place. Each Patrician is a vassal to the Merchant Republic, and can conduct warfare and plotting independent of the Doge, as well as hold cities and castles, or even their own vassals.
Each family builds Trade Posts and assembles Trade Zones to build income, and has a Family Palace as its base of operations, complete with levies and the ability to recruit their own retinues. Each Merchant Republic has five leading families, each headed by a Patrician, who vie for control and conduct trading throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond.
